CHANDIGARH: Did the Jat voters’ disenchantment spoil Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s Haryana game-plans? Experts believe the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had set its eyes on the Punjabi and the non-Jat voters, despite Jats, the land-owning class, accounting for 28 percent of the population.
They attribute this to the BJP’s failure to cross the halfway mark in the 90-member Assembly. It could win only 40 seats against 47 in 2014. The Congress has won 31 seats.
Jat Quota Factor The election results show that the BJP lost mainly in the Jat-dominated seats of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Bhiwani and Hisar districts. Captain Abhimanyu and O.P. Dhankar, both Minister in the Khattar government, were among the top BJP Jat leaders to bite the dust.
According to experts, facing anti-incumbency, the BJP government was banking on national issues than its performance. Also, the Jat quota factor remained an issue in the election where caste equations have always played a major role.
The Jats blamed the BJP government for not defending their 10 percent quota demand in jobs in the Supreme Court, which set aside that provision.
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