ISHAPUR KHERI (BARODA): The coalition government headed by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar is showcasing its record of making public appointments in a transparent manner as its major achievement to woo voters for the Baroda bypoll.
At Ishapur Kheri village, located around 14 km from Gohana city on Jind road, a large hoarding was placed near the village entrance seeking votes from the villagers for providing three government jobs in the village without charging bribes and or on recommendation.
“In the past five years, three persons from the village got government jobs in the state without ‘ parchi or kharchi (without bribes or political recommendations).’ Vote for BJP to become partner in the state government,” is the message on the hoarding, which had photographs of the Haryana CM, deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala and BJP president O P Dhankar.
BJP govt puts details of devp on hoardings in villages of Baroda seat
Haryana is notorious for recruitment scams — former chief minister O P Chautala is still undergoing sentence in Tihar jail for his involvement in the teachers’ recruitment scam. Similarly, a large number of recruitments by the Haryana government have been set-aside by various courts after finding massive irregularities and favouritism.
In a state which has seen a large number of these scams related to appointments to government posts, even providing jobs in a fair and transparent manner in the public sector has become a reason for the coalition government to flaunt this as an achievement.
However, there was no immediate confirmation whether three residents of the village had got selected for government jobs in the last five years, including the Khattar government’s first term.
Prem Singh, the sarpanch of Ishapur Kheri, expressed ignorance about the number of villagers who have been selected for government jobs during the BJP regime and said that several students from the village are attending coaching institutes and studying outstation and they might have been selected.
Sources confirmed to TOI that BJP poll strategists had prepared similar hoardings for other villages as well but after a complaint by the opposition parties, such hoardings have been removed.
Apart from this, to counter the Congress and the INLD, which are mainly attacking the BJP-JJP coalition government for new farm laws, the saffron party has also placed hoardings outside almost every village in the assembly constituency urging the villagers to vote for BJP, if they want development of their village/area. On some of these hoardings, the ruling party has also mentioned the details of money spent by it on development work in the Baroda constituency.
Sources confirmed to TOI that from the beginning the BJP poll managers had decided to highlight the pro-incumbency factor in Baroda by getting voters to support the ruling party, if they want instant development of their area. Even in their speeches, all BJP star campaigners have been urging people to vote for “sarkar mein bhagidari (share in government).”
Even during a briefing on Tuesday at Baroda, former Union minister and senior BJP leader Birender Singh said that since the BJP-JJP coalition government had four more years to complete its term, they were in a position to ensure instant development of the area. “We will do development work in Baroda instantly like instant coffee,” Birender claimed.