The growing popularity and influence of national parties in Haryana is taking a toll on regional parties. The election figures of the last few years testify to this. In the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections, a direct contest was seen between the Congress and the BJP. The vote share of the two parties was 36.49 and 28.08 percent respectively. In terms of vote percentage, the Jannayak Janata Party emerged as the third largest party by winning 10 seats. It got 14.80 percent votes.
In the 2014 Haryana Assembly elections, BJP was the largest party with 33.5 percent vote share. Indian National Lok Dal came second with 24.11 percent votes and Congress came third with 20.58 percent votes. Till 2018, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) used to be a popular and strong regional party of Haryana. But there was a split in the Chautala family and this directly affected the party founded by Chaudhary Devi Lal in 1996. Dushyant Chautala broke ties with Indian National Lok Dal along with his father Ajay Singh Chautala and founded a new party named Jannayak Janata Party.
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JJP-INLD clean sweep in Lok Sabha elections
After this, in the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections, INLD’s vote percentage was only 2.44 percent and the party won only one seat. At the same time, JJP managed to win 10 seats with 14.80 percent vote share and joined the coalition government with BJP. Political analysts predicted that JJP will now emerge as the strongest regional party in Haryana in place of INLD. But within just 5 years, Dushyant Chautala’s party also started disintegrating. Four out of 10 MLAs of the party, Devendra Singh Babli, Jogiram Sihag, Anoop Dhanak and Ramkumar Gautam joined the BJP. At the same time, three went to the Congress camp.
Now only three MLAs are left in the JJP family, including Dushyant Chautala himself and his mother Naina Chautala. The extent to which the popularity of JJP and INLD has fallen can be gauged from the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In this Lok Sabha election, the Jannayak Janata Party could get only 0.87 percent votes, while the Indian National Lok Dal got only 1.74 percent votes. The Jat community has been the primary vote bank of INLD and JJP. But in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Jats moved towards the Congress. In such a situation, to save the existence of the party, while INLD has formed an alliance with BSP in this assembly election, JJP has joined hands with Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party.
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JJP and INLD face the challenge of saving their existence
BSP’s support base in Haryana is also continuously slipping. Azad Samaj Party will contest elections in Haryana for the first time. JJP has given 20 seats to ASP. Bahujan Samaj Party has never won more than one seat in Haryana. It won one seat in 2005 and 2014, but BSP’s account was not opened in 2019. BSP’s vote percentage was 3.5 percent in 2005 which remained only 0.16 percent in 2019. According to Punjab University professor and political analyst Gurmeet Singh, the vote bank of JJP and INLD has slipped and this time both these parties are contesting elections only to save their existence.
The interesting thing is that both the parties are presenting themselves as king makers. INLD general secretary Abhay Chautala has claimed that his party can win at least 15 seats. JJP leader Dushyant Chautala is claiming to defeat both Congress and BJP. Professor Gurmeet says, ‘Whatever be the claims, the reality is that the popularity of both these parties is continuously falling. INLD and JJP are contesting the elections thinking that if they are not in a position to form the government, then at least they will definitely succeed in the role of king maker.’
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Direct contest between Congress and BJP in Haryana
According to election experts, this time in Haryana assembly elections, the contest will be direct on most of the seats, that is, there will be a contest between Congress and BJP. A triangular contest can be seen in some assembly constituencies. Analysts are holding the continuously falling credibility of regional parties responsible for this. According to Professor Gurmeet Singh, till 2018, INLD used to give a tough fight to the national parties in Haryana, but after the split, the party has lost its strength.
The regional party has been able to complete its term only once
Rao Virendra Singh was the first Chief Minister to be elected from a regional party in 1967 under the banner of Vishal Haryana Party, whose government lasted only 241 days. In 1999, Bansi Lal formed the Haryana Vikas Party and ran the government as the Chief Minister of another regional party, but its tenure lasted only 3 years and 74 days. Indian National Lok Dal formed the government twice in 1999 and 2000. INLD Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s first term was of 224 days, but he completed his 5-year term between 2000 and 2005. Earlier, Om Prakash Chautala had also formed governments by winning elections from Janata Dal and Samajwadi Janata Party. But the political situation has completely changed in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections. Regional parties have been marginalized and their existence has been questioned.
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