Parties look forward to placating disgruntled veterans ahead of polls

With Assembly polls due in 2024, political parties in Haryana are narrowing in on strategies to protect or amplify their standings in the state. Additionally, given the possibility that the Assembly and Parliamentary elections might be conducted simultaneously, no single party is in any position to take the polls lightly. Amid the frenzy, however, state leadership across party lines have been faced with the matter of disgruntled party veterans, forcing them to rework their approach.
Even as it attempts to soothe displeased party bigwigs, the BJP high command has made it abundantly clear that pressuring the party would not earn anyone any political mileage. Several of these leaders are politicians who quit the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party in 2014 and 2019 to join the BJP. This list includes leaders such as Birender Singh, who was given a berth in the Union cabinet after joining the party in 2014. Singh is believed to be upset with both state leadership and party high command owing to his long-standing rivalry with Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) leader and Deputy Chief Minister, Dushyant Chautala over the Uchana Assembly seat. Singh has long been a critic of the BJP’s alliance with the JJP which was formed in order to forge a government in Haryana following the 2019 elections. The BJP in 2019 emerged as the largest party in the state Assembly with 40 MLAs but failed to get a full majority. Both Singh and his son Brijender – a BJP MP from Hisar – continue to suggest that the BJP needs to bring its alliance with the JJP to an end “as soon as possible” to keep the party’s position from weakening ahead of the elections.