After the announcement of Lok Sabha elections, the code of conduct has been imposed and all the political parties are on their toes in terms of election preparations so that they can emerge victorious on maximum parliamentary seats proving their mettle. In the last ten days, there has been widespread political turmoil in Haryana which remained in discussions even at the national level as well. Following the resignation of former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on March 12, Nayab Saini was sworn in on the same day along with the constitution of the state cabinet with five ministers.
Further in this row, 8 cabinet ministers including 7 ministers of state, independent charge and a cabinet minister were also sworn in a week after on March 19, due to which new political equations were formed in Haryana just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. After the formation of the new cabinet, BJP has three birds with one stone including decentralisation of power in Ahirwal belt known as Haryana, strengthening its position in districts falling on GT road as well as Mulim dominated areas.
It is a noticeable fact that the Muslim voters have been at loggerheads with saffron BJP maintaining a distance from the party as well as accusing it of negligence of Muslim community and during the Nuh violence that erupted last year in the month of July, the rift between the ruling BJP and the people of the Muslim community has widened. The party has tried to strengthen itself here by giving a berthing to Sanjay Singh an MLA from Sohna seat, adjacent to Muslim dominated Nuh. The BJP is pretty aware with the fact that surviving the battle in the Nuh districts is not going to a cakewalk due to mainly two factors-firstly Congress, the main opposition party , has unilateral dominance on all three assembly seats falling in Nuh district, while secondly the voters hailing from the Muslim community is disgruntled with the ruling BJP over several issues. It is pertinent to mention that Maman Khan, Aftab Ahmad and Mohmmad Ilyas had won all three assembly seats falling in Nuh namely Firojpur Jhirka, Nuh and Punhana respectively In wake of the aforementioned political scenario, by giving a berth in the cabinet to Sanjay Singh, who had lost assembly elections thrice from Tawadu and Nuh on BJP ticket, BJP seems in a mood to polarize the votes here.
The formation of the new cabinet clearly indicates that the power of BJP veteran Rao Inderjit, who is believed to have widespread political influence in South Haryana, known as the Ahirwal belt, has been decentralised. The removal of the OP Yadav, close one to him as a cabinet minister has been considered a setback to Rao Inderjeet
Besides, by giving a place in the cabinet to his arch rival Abhay Singh Yadav, Rao Inderjit has been given a double blow which clearly shows that The party does not want to see him taking a unilateral hold. It is pertinent to mention that the BJP was believed to appoint Abhay Singh Yadav a minister earlier but due to the disagreement of Rao Inderjit, Abhay Singh Yadav failed to get a berth in the cabinet. Despite terming Rao Inderjeet his friend and showring praise on Rao inderjeet by PM Narender Modi and finalising his ticket again from Gurugram Lok Sabha seat, the BJP has denied the portfolio of cabinet minister to his confidant and loyalist while given berth to his arch rival ahead of the polls.
Apart from aforesaid, An attempt has been made to hit multiple targets by inducting a maximum of three Jat ministers in the cabinet, two of whom are Ranjit Singh and JP Dalal and one minister of state, Mahipal Dhanda. It is pertinent to mention that JP Dalal and independent Ranjit Singh were cabinet ministers earlier too while Mahipal Dhanda has also been made a minister for first time. Although earlier five of the Jat MLAs were given a berth in the state cabinet before the formation of new cabinet Like before, an attempt has been made to increase the party’s electoral base in the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies dominated by the Chautala family by making independent Ranjit Singh a minister. At present the Chautala family is divided into three factions – JJP, INLD and Ranjit Singh. Political experts are of the opinioni that there may be resentment among the Jat community somewhere due to less ministers from the Jat community.
Besides, It is evident from the formation of the new cabinet the BJP is on toes to strengthen its position in the districts falling on GT road belt namely Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal and Panipat. In this series, BJP has made Aseem Goyal, an MLA from Ambala, Subhash Sudha, an MLA from Kurukshetra, and Mahila Dhanda an MLA from Panipat as ministers of state with independent charge, while CM Nayab Saini himself is from Karnal in a way because former Chief Minister Manohar Lal has resigned from Karnal Assembly vacating it for Naib Saini who will the upcoming bye-election. Thus, an attempt has been made to strengthen the party on GT road belt.
While by denying berths to the former ministers in newly formed cabinet, the party has given an ultimatam in a way to all the party MLAs to remain disciplined as well in active mode . Anil Vij’s disagreement with the name of CM Naib Saini and then his leaving the meeting was considered indiscipline by the party high command. Of course, Anil Vij kept saying that he was not upset but even after knowing about his displeasure, the party left him to his fate without making much effort to convince him.
While assessing the sexual harassment case against Sandeep Singh, the party saw it as a political loss and showed him the way out of the cabinet, whereas a very senior BJP leader said that the reason behind not keeping Kamlesh Dhanda in the cabinet was that his loose working was the reason for her removal and replaced her by Seema Trikha
