Shadow on Congress rally in Pataudi as Mission Surjewala fails in Jind

GURUGRAM: The crushing defeat of Congress heavyweight and Kaithal MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala in the Jind bypoll has taken the wind out of Congress’ sails in Haryana and will cast a shadow on the party’s mega rally in Pataudi on February 2 which will be attended by all state leaders.
The split in Jat votes, instead of a consolidation behind Surjewala, is the key factor which led to Congress’ defeat. Of the 1.7 lakh voters in Jind, around 50,000 belong to the Jat community and that was one of Congress’ key reasons behind fielding Surjewala from this constituency. However, party insiders claimed that the Jat votes they were expecting were diverted to the newly-floated Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), the breakaway faction of INLD.

Surjewala in his tweet congratulated BJP’s Krishan Lal Middha for the victory. “I hope Jind will rise above caste politics and witness development. I and Congress party will keep working for development of Jind,” he tweeted. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda told TOI that the BJP won the bypoll as per trends. “The BJP used the government machinery in its favour and won the by-poll. It will not have any impact on the forthcoming elections,” he said.

Congress’ veteran leader and former minister Captain Ajay Yadav said that INLD leader Abhay Chautala helped the BJP win by convincing Jat voters to support the party. Young Jat voters, who Congress had hoped would vote for the party, supported JJP but failed to secure a win for it, he added. Yadav also said that Congress and JJP lost this time but the result should be a wake-up call to Jat voters and they should support Congress in the forthcoming state and Union elections to get recognition.

Political experts were expecting a three-way split in the Jat votes between Surjewala, JJP’s Digvivay Chautala and INLD’s Umedh Redhu but the votes turned out to be in favour of JJP and BJP. Redhu partly achieved Congress’ strategy of capturing Jat votes by receiving support from the Kandila Khap, which comprises around 28 Jat-dominated villages.

The OBC votes, on the other hand, went to rebel BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini’s Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP). LSP wasn’t a tough contender in Jind but it made dents in Congress’ non-Jat votebank as Saini, an OBC leader, managed to consolidate those votes.

Another Congress leader, who did not want to be named, blamed the misuse of administrative and government machinery by the ruling party for Congress’ loss. He alleged that there were instances of cash distribution to influence voters before the elections. “Just before the bypolls, three vehicles were caught carrying a huge amount of cash which was to be distributed among voters,” he claimed.

Not just this, some Congress leaders also said that the Group D recruitment drive by the state government, just before the elections, was a violation of the code of conduct and was carried out to influence voters. “It was done, keeping the elections in mind, and the targets were unemployed youths and their families,” said a Congress leader, who wished to remain anonymous.