Political observers are following an electoral strategy that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is following in Haryana: it is soft on Kumari Selja, the Congress Party’s main Dalit leader, and attacks its Jat face, Bhupender Singh Hooda. After the Hooda camp gained the upper hand over Selja when the Congress selected electoral candidates, the BJP accused its rival of discriminating against Dalits. Meanwhile, the Congress responded politically to this strategy by getting BJP leader Ashok Tanwar to return to the Grand Old Party after five years on Thursday, which incidentally was the last day of campaigning for the Haryana elections. Tanwar, who is a Dalit, is a former Lok Sabha MP and former Congress state president.
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According to these observers, the BJP and the Congress are aware of the importance of Dalits, who make up around 21 per cent of the state’s population and are crucial for any party that wants to win the elections in Haryana.
#LOOK | Haryana BJP leader Ashok Tanwar joined the Congress in the presence of Congress and Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi and former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Mahendragarh.(Source: Congress) pic.twitter.com/g4pqSmbqGo
— AIN (@ANI) October 3, 2024
Since 2014, the BJP in Haryana has wooed all communities except the Jats. He won the 2014 and 2019 assembly elections after creating a Jat vs non-Jat binary. Several Dalits helped the party strengthen its non-Jat coalition, which already had the support of a good section of Other Backward Classes (OBC), Punjabi Khatris and upper castes.
The question is whether Dalits vote equally in elections. Some analysts believe that Dalits will support the Congress, but others think that a significant proportion of the community can be considered a core voter base for the BJP.
To some extent, one can understand how Dalits in Haryana vote by examining the subcastes of the community.
Dalits in Haryana
Jatavs (officially known as Chamars in Haryana) are the most populous sub-caste within Dalits in Haryana and comprise almost 50 per cent of the total Scheduled Caste (SC) population. “The community largely resides in the rural belt of the state and unlike other sub-caste groups, also has decent property. Currently, many members of the community, especially those residing in villages, work as laborers in agricultural fields” said Prakash Chander, a PhD scholar. at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and has worked for Dalit rights.
The Jatavs are considered a core vote bank of the Congress and align well with the Jats (another support base of the party), according to Chander. Over the years, the two communities have voted for Congress. Selja, a Lok Sabha member, is considered the tallest Jatav politician in Haryana.
Haryana’s second most dominant Dalit sub-caste is the Valmiki community, which comprises 25 to 30 per cent of the state’s SC population.
Valmikis live in urban and rural areas and many work as healthcare workers or in related jobs. According to analysts, the community largely votes for the BJP, which has given four tickets to the community. Congress has given two. “The saffron party (the BJP) made inroads into the community by penetrating civic committees run by municipal corporations. These civic committees, especially those related to sanitation workers, have a good presence of Valmikis,” Chander said.
Third are the Dhanaks, who mostly live in cities and account for a little over 10 per cent of the total SC population in Haryana. Community members have worked as day laborers in food grain markets. Dhanaks belong to the Scheduled Caste Category (DSC) in Haryana. “The community is disadvantaged, especially compared to other subcaste groups in South Carolina like the Jatavs,” he said.
“Given the BJP’s better presence than the Congress in urban areas, the Dhanaks were attracted to the former in the last elections. However, things have started changing and the BJP will find it very difficult to keep the Dhanaks in their group,” said Surendra Bhaderwal. , political consultant.
Other Dalit subcastes like Doms, Pasis, Mazhabi Sikhs, Khatiks, Bazigars and Saperas are too few to influence electoral politics.
Caste equations
The Congress and the BJP have fielded 17 Dalit candidates each, but only in SC reserved seats (the state has 90 assembly seats). According to estimates, the BJP has given eight tickets to Jatav candidates, four to Valmikis and five to other Dalit sub-castes. The Congress has given 12 tickets to Jatav candidates, two to Valmikis and three to others. This reflects which subcastes both parties plan to consolidate further behind them.
The Congress has had a combined Dalit-Jat strategy in Haryana for almost two decades. It usually appoints a Dalit leader as the state president and pits a Jat against the leader of the Congress legislative party (CLP) or the chief minister (CM). Some notable examples are Bhupinder Singh Hooda (CLP leader) and Udai Bhan (state president), Kiran Choudhary (CLP leader) and Ashok Tanwar (state president), and Hooda (CM) and Phool Chand Mullana (state president ).
Haryana’s Dalit population is not equally distributed. In Fatehabad, Sirsa and Ambala districts, the community comprises more than a quarter of the population. In Nuh, Faridabad and Gurugram, the community is sparse.
The Congress has been able to bring together Jats, Jatavs and Muslims, but not the entire Dalit community. The only time almost all Dalit communities voted for a single party in an assembly election was during Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) founder Devi Lal’s tenure as Chief Minister. Experts believe that based on the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Dalits seem to be attracted to the Congress, but the trend is not certain.
“The BJP is trying its best to make big gains, and Valmikis will most likely vote for the saffron group. Also, the alliance between INLD and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is likely to get some Dalit votes, especially for the latter, as the BSP has some presence in the state and, along with the INLD, becomes a formidable player in at least some seats like Yamunanagar and Ellenabad,” Bhaderwal said.
“The other Jat-Dalit alliance, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and the Azad Samaj Party (ASP), is unlikely to have much impact as currently the JJP’s credibility is at an all-time low and the ASP is a new participant in Haryana politics. However, both Dalit parties (BSP and ASP) will not have much impact, but whatever votes the SC gets will likely come from members belonging to the Jatav subcaste.”
“The fact that the Supreme Court allows states to create sub-classifications within the SC and ST categories has also been taken positively by non-dominant Dalit sub-caste groups as many of them in Haryana feel that the maximum amount of benefits of reserve is being disproportionately exploited by the Jatav,” Chander said.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and the BJP won five seats each in the state. But Congress won both SC reserved seats – Ambala and Sirsa. In the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP won more seats than the Congress and formed the government in alliance with the JJP. However, the Congress won against the BJP in the reserved SC constituencies, winning seven of the 17 seats. The BJP got five, while the JJP and independents won four and one respectively.
First published: October 4, 2024 | 20:58 IS
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