Anil Vij Declares Himself CM Candidate, Trouble within Both BJP and Congress in Haryana

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Sept 15: Indicating that all is not well within the BJP in poll-bound Haryana, the party’s former minister Anil Vij on Sunday staked his claim to become the chief minister if the party won the elections in the state even when the party leadership has made it clear that the incumbent chief minister Nayab Singh Saini will continue to hold the post in the event of the BJP securing a clear majority in next month’s elections.

Addressing a press conference in Ambala on Sunday, Mr Vij declared that he could be the party’s chief ministerial face and said he was “the best CM candidate in the BJP.”

“I never sought anything from the party till today… people from Haryana are coming to meet me. Even in Ambala, people tell me that I am senior-most why I did not become CM. On demand of the people, and on the basis of seniority, this time I will stake claim to become chief minister,” Vij said. Whether the party makes me or not, it is up to them. But if they make me CM, I will change Haryana’s ‘taqdeer and tasveer’ (destiny and face of Haryana), the Ambala Cantt MLA said.

Even afterwards when he was asked to explain his staking claim for the CM’s post against the party’s decision to continue with Mr Saini, Mr Vij said, “I am the party’s senior-most MLA and have won six elections and am contesting my seventh one. I have never sought anything from my party so far.” “But people from across Haryana and people of my own constituency have been meeting me… I will stake a claim for the chief minister’s post,” the 71-year-old Vij said. “It is up to the party high command to take a call,” he said.

When pointed out that Saini has already been declared chief ministerial candidate, Vij even while insisting that he was a dedicated worker of the BJP said, “There is no bar on staking the claim. I will make my claim, let the party take a call.” Asked about the timing of his decision with polls only a couple of weeks away, Vij said he took the decision after people came to meet him. “People have been regularly meeting me and asking me about this (that he is senior most and yet not become CM),” Vij said.

Notably, in March, Manohar Lal Khattar was replaced by Saini as chief minister. Polling for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana will be held on October 5 and the votes will be counted on October 8. When BJP came to power in Haryana for the first time on its own strength in 2014, Vij along with few other BJP leaders including Ram Bilas Sharma, was frontrunner for the CM’s post, but the party went with Manohar Lal Khattar, a first-time MLA then, as its choice.

Recently, BJP has faced resentment from some of its leaders who were denied tickets. BJP leaders including Ranjit Singh Chautala, Laxman Napa, Karan Dev Kamboj and few others quit the party. Former Minister Ram Bilas Sharma was also denied ticket from Mahendragarh this time.

In March, Vij was said to be upset with the BJP for not keeping him in the loop when the party decided to replace Manohar Lal Khattar as the chief minister and bring Nayab Singh Saini in his place. He had then said he came to know about it only in the BJP MLAs’ meeting here in which Saini’s name was announced.

Vij later also did not find a place in the cabinet led by Saini. The senior BJP leader had also kept away from Saini’s swearing-in ceremony in March. In April, while addressing a public gathering in Ambala, Vij, without taking any names, had said, some people have made him a stranger in his party.

“Mana kuch logo ne mujhe meri party mein he begana bana diya hai, parantu kayee baar begane apno say bhi zyada kaam kar jaate hai, (It may be true that some people have made me a stranger in my party, but sometimes strangers do more work than own people),” Vij had then said. Vij, who held the home portfolio in the Khattar government, was often at loggerheads with Khattar when he was the CM.

The rival Congress too was not problem-free, particularly because of the three-cornered power struggle within the party between the former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala.  The veteran leader Hooda, the two-time chief minister and four-time MP, continues to be the Congress’s face in the state, even as it has not projected any CM candidate for the October 5 Assembly polls in keeping with the “party’s convention”.

The political heavyweight belonging to the Jat community, Hooda, who turned 77 on Sunday, has been having his way in the Congress for many years, regardless of the opposition that he faces from his detractors within the party. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, Hooda managed to get eight candidates of his choice out of the state’s 10 seats – including his son Deepender Hooda (Rohtak), and got four of them elected with the fifth seat going to Kumar Selja. The Congress left one seat, Kurukshetra, for its INDIA ally AAP which it lost to the BJP. The BJP and the Congress had shared five seats each of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

Hooda faced criticism from a Congress section for “wrong candidate selection”, but the point remained that the party increased its vote share by 15% as compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

This time, as regards the selection of candidates for the 90 Assembly seats, Congress sources said “Hooda has got a majority of candidates of his choice. At least 70 candidates are such who are backed by Hooda or his son Deepender”. During several meetings held by the Congress high command in this regard, Selja and another Hooda detractor Randeep Singh Surjewala also gave the lists of their recommended candidates, but the party leadership chose to accept Hooda’s nominees for most of the seats.

The proposed alliance between the Congress and the AAP did not materialise mainly due to Hooda’s stiff opposition, even though other senior party leaders including Selja, Birender Singh and Capt Ajay Singh Yadav were also against it.

“It was Hooda, who had put his foot down and vociferously opposed any alliance with the AAP. Despite the pulls and pressures and even Rahul Gandhi’s inclination to have some kind of seat-sharing arrangement with allies but Hooda did not budge and the alliance did not happen,” a senior party leader said.

The BJP’s campaign in Haryana in every election over the last several years has been centred on its opposition to Hooda. Even within the Congress, his detractors have gone after him for promoting his son Deepender at the cost of the party’s interests, accusing him of “reducing Congress to a Bapu-Beta party”, but Hooda has managed to keep most of state party leaders on his side.

Haryana has nearly 27% Jat voters, who play a key role in determining the outcome in about 40 seats. With Chautalas remaining divided, Hooda is widely acknowledged as the “tallest Jat leader” in the state. “The party high command cannot afford to upset Hooda, especially when most of the candidates are of his choice. If most of them win and the party secures a majority, it would be difficult for the high command to ignore Hooda’s claim for the CM post,” said another party leader.