BJP upbeat in Haryana after Article 370 scrapped

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Haryana unit president, Subhash Barala, said Friday that the abrogation of Article 370, the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir and according equal rights to Indians who want to settle in the newly created Union Territories would be the issues that would help the saffron party storm back to victory in the Assembly polls.

Speaking exclusively to this newspaper, Mr Barala pointed out that the long-pending aspirations of the common people had been met under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah. “Haryana is a land of nationalists, with almost all families’ having members in the security forces. The move to abrogate Article 370 is likely to help us in the Assembly polls the same way the Balakot and surgical strikes did in the Lok Sabha polls,” he added.

The BJP is also hopeful that it would gain in the forthcoming Assembly polls and improve upon its 2014 tally of 49 seats. “This time around it will be a unique contest as we hope to decimate the remnants of the corrupt dyna-sties that have been ruling the state for the past few years,” he said.

He claimed that not even a single dynast was able to get elected to the Asse-mbly as was demonstrated in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, where the party secured all 10 seats in the state. “In fact, these elections will also be unique in that people will not be affected by caste affiliations when they decide to vote and they will vote for the party that has provided them with a decisive and strong government,” he added.  

Mr Barala said several senior leaders from various Opposition parties were in touch with the BJP leadership to switch sides.

“However, we have decided to be cautious before allowing anyone into the fold,” he added.

The BJP leader said the “nationalistic policy” of the Modi government and “corruption-free governance” provided by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar would be a clincher for it and would easily be able to secure an over-two-thirds majority in the 90-member Assembly.

Haryana is likely to go to polls in October along with the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assemblies. The party also feels that the Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme implemented by the Modi government is also expected to play a big part as the majority of the population make a living via agriculture.