New Delhi’s neighbourhood township of Sonipat was one of the epicentres of the February 2016 violent Jat quota agitation that took many lives. The scars of ugly violence are still alive in the minds of people three years later.
This will be one of the determining factors in consolidating the non-Jat votes not just in the Sonipat constituency but in other parts of the state as well, especially in the Jat-dominated pockets.
Properties of non-Jats were systematically targeted, restaurants were burnt down, and commercial establishments looted by goons who created mayhem on the streets with scant regards for law for days together.
The state was held to ransom by the mob with the state administration and police machinery looking the other way. Properties of a sitting BJP minister in Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s cabinet too wasn’t spared. Besides the dominant Jat community, Sonipat Lok Sabha seat has nearly 1.9 lakh Brahmins, over a lakh Punjabis and nearly 80,000 from the Baniya community.
The Jat quota agitation was the biggest failure of the Khattar government. Yet, Khattar is turning things to his advantage by asking voters to punish the perpetrators of the violence and arson. In his rally speech, he indirectly blamed Hooda for the chaos. Hooda’s former political adviser Prof Virender was arrested on charges of instigating violence during the agitation. Joblessness, lack of avenues and poor infrastructure remain a major issue in this constituency.
Interestingly, while the BJP’s campaign strategy is centred mostly around Modi, the rhetoric by Congress leaders is not so much around their party president Rahul Gandhi.
In Sonipat, Khattar took a dig at Hooda saying Congress leaders were hesitant to use Rahul’s name in the poll narrative apprehensive that it would be counter-productive.
Hooda retorted saying the BJP was only talking of Modi in Haryana as there was little by the Khattar government to show in the name of performance.