In a run up to the parliamentary polls, all the parties are continuously putting their best in a bid to prove their mettle. In the assembly elections held last year in 5 states, all parties including the ruling BJP and the main opposition Congress were eyeball to eyeball on the issue of caste based- census. Caste equations emerged as a decisive factor to some extent in the state politics playing a key role in the polls as well as making all political factions come up with ticket distribution taking into account the caste equations. It is evident from the history that from time to time, different castes and communities in Haryana have demanded maximum tickets in the elections, citing their neglect and lack of proper representation in the government. Brahmin, Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Scheduled Caste (SC) communities have been raising the demand to appoint CM from their community.
In this series, a fresh political development occurred as ahead of the polls the OBC community of the state has been continuously accusing the ruling parties and other parties of ignoring the people from the OBC community and seeking 25 seats and 3 seats in forthcoming parliamentary and assembly polls respectively. Even in the Rohtak rally held three days ago, the people of the community accused the ruling faction of neglecting the people from the community stating that the OBC community is still deprived of their rights and if they do not get their rights then the people of the community will not cast their franchise in support of the ruling parties. In this row, taking into consideration the caste faction, the ruling BJP-JJP and the main Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), its ally in power Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and the main opposition parties Congress, along with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) are most likely to come up with tall promises and announcements ahead of the polls for the people of the community in a bid to galvanize the OBC voters.
In continuation to aforesaid, it is noteworthy that as the polls draw near, the representatives of the community are seeking maximum parliamentary and assembly seats in upcoming polls stating that despite the OBC community having a significant vote bank in Haryana, people of the society are not given tickets in that regard. Citing gross negligence of the community in the recent rally held in Rohtak, the representative of the OBC community sought 3 and 25 seats out of 10 parliamentary and 90 assembly seats in Haryana in forthcoming polls respectively and further putting the ball in the court of political factions, they said that ultimately the political parties will have to fulfill their demands.
It is noteworthy that OBC and SC communities constitute a sizable chunk of vote bank as well as population in Haryana forcing all political parties to focus on the votes belonging to both communities. The data revealed that people from SC and BC category in Haryana constitute about 51 percent of the total vote population. Based on the data, Out of the total verified 68 lakh families and 2.83 crore people in Haryana, there are a total of 1368365 SC families and the number of people from the families is 5861131 which constitutes 20.71 percent of the total families. Similarly, the number of people from BC (A) and BC (B) category families is 4793312 and 3797306 constituting 16.93 percent and 13.41 percent respectively. Likewise, there are a total of 1368365 families of SC category in Haryana which represent 20.71 percent of the total families. Similarly, the number of BC (A) and BC (B) families is 1123852 and 869079 constituting 16.52 percent and 12.78 percent of the total families. On the other hand, the number of BC (A) and BC (B) category families is 4793312 and 3797306 respectively. In view of the sizable chunk of vote share of the OBC community, the ruling and opposite factions are brainstorming every possible strategy to galvanise the voters assessing the political mileage.
In this series, the ruling BJP had come with a major change in the organization setup on 27 October, 2023 replacing OP Dhankar, a Jat leader with newly appointed state president Naib Saini who is an MP from Kurukshetra parliamentary seat and belongs to the OBC community. Political experts are of the opinion that the caste equation emerges as a crucial factor behind this as the party is trying to woo voters from OBC category through appointing Naib Saini who hails from the same community. It is a noticeable fact that the Jat vote bank is more inclined towards Congress, followed by JJP, INLD and BJP. In such a situation, considering the voting trend of Jat voters, the BJP has played the OBC card by appointing Naib Saini as the state president.
