Khattar’s No. 2 banks on good governance

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Mahendragarh, October 18

Aiming to enter the Haryana Vidhan Sabha for the sixth time from his home turf — Mahendragarh — Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, No 2 in the Manohar Lal Khattar Cabinet, is heavily banking on the BJP’s “nationalism” narrative, especially abrogation of Article 370, and the Khattar government’’s good governance during the last five years.

Sharma, who led the BJP to its first-ever victory in state Assembly elections as state president in 2014, is pitted against Congress’’ Rao Daan Singh, his traditional rival since 2000. While the contest is essentially seen as a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress, Sandeep Singh, a socially committed former HCS officer (Independent) and Ramesh Paldi (JJP) are trying their best to make it a multi-cornered fight.

“India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Haryana under Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar have been transformed into a progressive nation and state in the last five years. Like the Lok Sabha elections, the Haryanvi electorate is giving us unprecedented mandate in the elections and Congress and other parties are nowhere in the fight,” Sharma said during his campaign.

However, accessibility seems to be a major factor against Sharma, who is No 2 in the Khattar Cabinet. “While the district headquarters are at Narnaul, about 30 km from here, where the grievance redressal system seems to be non-existent, accessing the minister at Mahendragarh and Chandigarh poses its own set of problems for common residents,” alleged Somvir, a resident of Satnali.

Besides inaccessibility, Rao Daan Singh levelled charges of non-performance against Sharma, saying that the BJP government was a failure on all fronts. “The people of Mahendragarh will teach the non-performing Khattar government a lesson in the upcoming Assembly poll,” asserted the Congress candidate.

Even as the politicians trade charges and counter-charges, there are many takers for the BJP’’s claims of development and transparency. “During the Congress regime from 2005-2014, the developmental works were confined to Rohtak, Sonepat and Jhajjar disricts. However, now the works have starting percolating down to southern Haryana, including Mahendragarh. Meanwhile, the transparency in government jobs is a welcome departure from the past practice, when nepotism ruled the roost,” asserted Mahender Singh of Pali village.

The BJP was also exuding confidence from the fact that it had a lead of 61,246 votes over the Congress from the Mahendragarh Assembly segment of the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat in the 2019 parliamentary elections. The Congress, however, claimed that the lead was due to the “Modi wave” and the Assembly elections were being fought on local issues.