Gurugram: Since taking power in Haryana in 2014, the BJP has maintained a Jat-non-Jat balance, with a Jat state president and a non-Jat chief minister. But that equation changed Friday when the party appointed OBC leader and Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh Saini as the new Haryana state president.
The incumbent state BJP chief, Jat leader Om Prakash Dhankar, has now been assigned the role of national secretary.
According to political observers, the move appears to be an effort to rally non-Jat support in Haryana ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
Yoginder Gupta, a political analyst from Haryana, said that the BJP may be shifting its focus away from the influential Jat community in the state, as it appears unlikely to secure their votes. Instead, he added, the party might be working to consolidate support among non-Jat voters.
“In the present political scenario, Opposition parties, particularly the Congress, are promising a caste survey to please the OBCs with slogans like jobs and representation in accordance to population ratio. This, therefore, may be an attempt by the BJP to take the Opposition’s issues away from it,” Gupta said.
However, Dhankar’s elevation to the post of national secretary suggests that the BJP is mindful of not rubbing the Jat community the wrong way.
Speaking to ThePrint, Dhankar said that he was thankful to the party’s top leadership for having given him an opportunity to lead the state unit of the party for three years, and also gave his best wishes to Saini for the new responsibility.
Hours before the change, Dhankar addressed a press conference in Chandigarh where he highlighted the achievements of the nine years of the Khattar government.
He also said that no decision has been taken so far to contest the next year’s elections together with the BJP’s alliance partner, the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP). The JJP, notably, has a strong Jat support base.
Saini, who is considered close to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and was the national vice president of the BJP’s OBC Morcha until now, didn’t respond to ThePrint’s phone calls.
Friday morning, Saini posted two messages on X — one featuring pictures of his campaign in the Thanagazi assembly seat in Rajasthan, and the other highlighting nine years of the Manohar Lal Khattar government.
Later in the evening, Saini wrote two more posts on X. In one he thanked BJP president JP Nadda for his appointment as state chief, and in another wished Dhankar good luck for his new assignment as a national secretary of the BJP.
हरियाणा भाजपा के प्रदेश अध्यक्ष पद पर नियुक्त करने के लिए श्री जगत प्रकाश नड्डा जी का बहुत बहुत धन्यवाद । pic.twitter.com/80B8GyKnh9
— Nayab Saini (@NayabSainiBJP) October 27, 2023
Meanwhile, Sanjay Bhatia, BJP MP from Karnal, posted on X that it was only possible in the BJP that “a booth-level worker can become the PM, the national president or the state president of the party”. He also offered his best wishes to Saini on his appointment as Haryana state chief.
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‘Ignoring Jats not a good idea’
Jats make up around 23 percent of Haryana’s population, and have a significant impact on at least 40 of the state’s 90 assembly seats, with their influence extending to even more.
In the 2014 assembly election, they voted for the BJP in large numbers like other communities, but in 2019, they largely turned against the ruling party and were divided among the Congress, JJP, and INLD, which won 30, 10, and one seats, respectively.
The swing of Jat votes against the BJP in the 2019 assembly elections led to the defeat of the party’s Jat stalwarts, including Cabinet ministers Captain Abhimanyu and Om Prakash Dhankar, former Union minister Birender Singh’s wife Prem Lata, and then-state BJP president Subhash Barala.
However, a senior Jat leader of the BJP told ThePrint on condition of anonymity that ignoring the Jat community in Haryana may not be a wise idea.
“Jats have always dominated politics in Haryana. Since 2014, the BJP has been maintaining a Jat and non-Jat combination with a Jat as state president and a non-Jat as a CM. But now both the posts will be with the non-Jat community,” said the BJP leader.
He added that it is unclear what the party’s top leadership has in mind, but that there may be more changes in Haryana after the upcoming elections in five states.
Soon after Manohar Lal Khattar — a non-Jat from the Punjabi community— took over as Haryana CM in October 2014, then-BJP president Amit Shah appointed Subhash Barala, a Jat, as state president, replacing Ram Bilas Sharma, who is from the Brahmin community.
Barala remained state president for almost two terms of three years each, until July 2020, when Dhankar, also a Jat leader, took over. His single term of three years ended in July this year.
According to the website of the Directorate of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, the Saini community is placed along with five others — Yadavs, Gujjars, Lodhs, Meo and Gosains — in Block B of the “Backward Classes”. The 72 castes placed under Block A in the state are considered more backward than their Block B counterparts. In common parlance, the 72 castes placed in Block A are termed Backward Classes while those in Block B are called other backward classes (OBCs)
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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