The immediate challenge before newly appointed Haryana BJP president Om Prakash Dhankar is the Baroda by-election, necessitated due to the demise of Congress MLA Shri Krishan Hooda. However, the real test of his success would be whether he manages to carve out political space for his party in the Jat-dominated Sonipat-Rohtak-Jhajjar belt, the home turf of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his Rajya Sabha MP son Deepender Hooda, and win over the Jats.
Mr. Dhankar’s appointment has not just ended the BJP’s months-long hunt for a leader with a mass base for the State leadership but also propped up the party’s best bet against the Hoodas, who pose a major challenge to the ruling dispensation despite recent electoral losses. He not just hails from Jhajjar’s Dhakla village, but has also been politically active in the region for more than two decades having contested Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections.
Also, the fact that Mr. Dhankar has twice been elected the party’s Kisan Morcha president between 2011-15, and been the State’s Agriculture Minister adds to his credentials as a farmers’ leader.
Haryana BJP chief Om Prakash Dhankar.
A senior BJP leader said though the party considered Jannayak Janta Party leader and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, a Jat leader, as its “own”, the Hoodas still remained the biggest challenge for it. “BJP does not see Congress as a challenge in Haryana, but the Hoodas,” the leader remarked.
Though former Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu, also a Jat leader from Rohtak, fitted the bill for the post and was among the front runners, a party insider said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar saw him as a bigger “threat” than Mr. Dhankar and could have queered the pitch for him. Two-time Panipat Rural MLA Mahipal Dhanda, also in the race, probably fell short in political stature faced with two Jat stalwarts.
Caste factor
Though Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Faridabad MP Krishan Pal Gurjar had almost made it — a BJP leader had even tweeted a congratulatory post for him — the caste factor went against him. It eventually dawned upon the party leadership that ignoring Jats, who constitute around 29% of the State’s population, would be not be a wise decision. Similarly, a couple of party leaders from the Baniya community, initially being considered for the post, also failed to make it for not fitting the caste equation.
No second term
Sources said outgoing president Subhash Barala was also briefly considered for a second term, but his landslide defeat in the recent Vidhan Sabha election with a margin of over 50,000 votes and his son being an accused in high-profile molestation case of an IAS officer’s daughter went against him.
The fact that Mr. Dhankar was the national coordinator of the committee overseeing the collection of iron for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project ‘Statue of Unity’ and his long association with party president J.P. Nadda also turned the tide in his favour. Before joining the BJP in 1996, Mr. Dhankar had worked for Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad as well.
