‘NRC, Article 370 Didn’t Work for BJP in Haryana’: Yogendra Yadav

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may have managed to bag the most number of seats in Maharashtra and Haryana, but it does not enjoy the ‘real mandate’ of the people and can no longer be considered invincible, noted Swaraj India Chief and political analyst Yogendra Yadav, in conversation with The Quint’s Sanjay Pugalia.

According to Yadav, following the BJP’s landslide victory in the recent Lok Sabha elections, a perception of the BJP being unstoppable had developed. However, an awakening in the masses has meant that the BJP can no longer have an easy walk.

Yadav feels the BJP’s attempts to rake up Article 370 and National Register of Citizens did not work with voters in Haryana. Issues like jobs and rural distress were real issues that Yadav says the BJP failed to address.

Speaking on the contentious issue of NRC, Yadav asked, “tell me one town where you can find ten foreigners in Haryana? This doesn’t work in the state.”

While NRC failed to influence the minds of voters in Haryana, the row over Article 370, too, failed to generate any interest among the masses.

“Some had warned me against visiting Haryana after we took a contradictory stand on Article 370. However, in my month-long campaign in Haryana, no one with the exception of one BJP worker had raised the issue of Article 370.”

Yogendra Yadav

Yadav also said that the BJP failed to secure a majority in Haryana not because it had propped up a non-Jat as chief minister, but because it had fostered anti-Jat politics in the state.

“None of the Jat leaders projected by the BJP in Haryana have been accepted by voters in the community,” he said.

Talking about the Congress, Yadav said that while the Jats have rejected Khattar, they haven’t embraced the Congress either.

The Congress, he opined, has done well in northern Haryana – a region dominated by Dalits. But the Congress’ fallacy lies in the fact that it was reluctant to campaign with full force in Haryana and failed to raise important issues that resonated with the masses.

Speaking about Maharashtra, Yadav said the BJP has suffered a major setback in terms of the target of 140 seats that it had set. Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar’s NCP, said Yadav, had managed to retain control over its home turf.

“This election has shown that anyone who wants for form a government in Maharashtra has to listen to the farmers.” he said.

Yadav fees that while the NCP and Shiv Sena have managed to hold on, it is the Congress that seems to be on a sticky wicket in Maharashtra.

“If the Congress thinks that everything is alright and that they don’t have to do anything, then the party will suffer. There’s no match for Congress in finding victory where it has failed,” he said.