At a small clearing flanked by knee-high paddy crops and lined with Congress flags and orange and pink crepe paper decorations, people at Aurangabad village in Haryana’s Palwal district wait for a nukkad sabha (corner meeting) to begin. As dusk sets in, Udai Bhan arrives.
The Haryana Congress chief is the party’s candidate from the Hodal Assembly constituency and has a lot more on his plate than winning the seat for the fifth time. “You have made me the MLA four times. If it was about becoming an MLA again, I could have let my sons contest. I am contesting this election as the (Bhupinder Singh) Hooda-Udai jodi is very popular. I need your blessings, your votes and your support. My dignity and honour are at stake in this election,” he tells the crowd.
Claiming that the election is “not a small one”, Bhan says Hodal will see one of the biggest contests in the state. “All eyes are on us (Hodal) because they (Congress) made Udai Bhan the chief (of the party’s state unit),” he says.
Repeatedly asking people to speak up if he has taken money in return for jobs, the Congress leader lays emphasis on his “clean image” in a bid to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “kharchi, parchi” jibe. The BJP has used this phrase repeatedly on the campaign trail to accuse the Congress of recruiting people based on recommendations and bribes.
Bhan’s words seem to be resonating among people. “I voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha but the Assembly election is completely different. Iski chhavi hai kyunki niswarth kaam kiya hai, number ek imandar hai (he has a good reputation because he has worked selflessly and is very honest). The kharchi, parchi narrative doesn’t work here. This election is about hyperlocal issues and Bhan has an edge” says Jeevan Lal, a villager.
Following his electoral setback in 2019, where he lost to BJP’s Jagdish Nayar by just over 3,000 votes, Bhan will be up against the BJP’s first-time candidate Harinder Singh who is banking on the legacy of his father and two-time MLA Ram Rattan. Bhan also comes from a family with a political pedigree. His father Gaya Lal, a former MLA who, in 1967, changed parties thrice within nine hours, leading to the phrase “Aaya Ram, gaya Ram” becoming popular.
Hodal, formerly called Hassanpur, is one of the Assembly segments of the Faridabad Lok Sabha seat. It has an electorate of 1.96 lakh, with around 40% Jats and 22% Dalits. While Gaya Lal won the seat in 1967 and 1977, Bhan won it in 1987, 2000, 2005, and 2014.
Even as voters claim the caste composition is stacked in favour of Bhan, they subtly put forward a demand. “Hooda’s support will ensure that Jat votes will consolidate in Bhan’s favour. We hope he will be made the Deputy CM,” says Veer Singh, a farmer in Hodal town who lists the “good work” Bhan has done. “It will be a shame if he loses.”
Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) candidate Satveer Tanwar admits that Bhan has the edge but also hopes that a section of Jat voters will consolidate behind him. “Our alliance with (Chandra Shekhar Aazad) will help us garner some Dalit votes as well,” he says.
Bhan rose to prominence and became one of the Congress’s prominent Dalit faces in the state as the party sought to strike a caste balance after Sirsa MP Kumari Selja, who is also from the Dalit community and is Hooda’s rival, stepped down as the state unit chief in 2022.
“Dalit voters make up 21% of Haryana’s electorate and 60% of them belong to the leather-working caste. Replacing Selja with Bhan, both of whom belong to the same community, was a symbolic move. While Selja is seen to be close to the Gandhis, Bhan is close to them only by virtue of Hooda. They needed at least one leader from the community in case Selja left the party,” says Ram Kanwar, a former professor of economics at Haryana Agricultural University.
In Mitrol, 14 km from Hodal, Arya Samaj member Rajkumar Arya waits for Bhan. He also has a bone to pick with the MLA and says he will support the Congress as it gave a leader from the region “a key party position”. “Our organisation supported the BJP in 2019 because we trusted (PM Narendra) Modi ji. They said the double-engine sarkar would work but the MLA did not do anything. Nayar won because of Modi and not because Bhan was a bad candidate,” he says.
Arya agrees with the BJP’s “kharchi, parchi” allegation, pointing out that the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited (HRKNL), the agency tasked with providing contractual manpower to the state government, is riddled with corruption. “There was favouritism and corruption in the Congress rule but Bhan never indulged in this. He has helped people even when he was not in power as well,” he adds.
In Bedi Patti, around 3 km from Hodal town, voters claim Nayar had a better chance but Harinder Singh seems to be striking a chord among those who rake up the 2012 Kosi Kalan riots in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
“The BJP is a party of Hindus and our village supports it. Nayar had a better chance (of winning) but Harinder’s father is popular. Unemployment crisis is a talking point here as the last few years did not see many people get jobs,” a local Rathi Ram, who is into the transport business, says as shopkeeper Lala Seth interrupts: “At least the BJP did not indulge in ‘kharchi, parchi’. Udai Bhan sahi hoga, par Congress nahi (Udai may be a good choice but the Congress is not).”
PIC CREDIT: Aiswarya Raj