Chandigarh: There is a "pro-incumbency" sentiment in Haryana with voters realising the BJP has transformed their lives over the last 10 years, says senior leader Kiran Choudhry who switched to the saffron party following a three decade association with the Congress in June this year.
Choudhry is also confident her daughter Shruti Choudhry, a former MP who moved to the BJP with her, will win the "battle of the cousins" from the family stronghold Tosham against Congress’ Anirudh Chaudhry in the October 5 elections for the 90-member Haryana assembly.
Kiran Choudhry, 69, is the daughter-in-law of former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal and wife of former state minister, the late Surender Singh.
While Kiran Choudhry was nominated as party candidate for the Rajya Sabha bypolls from Haryana which she won unopposed, her daughter was given a ticket from Tosham.
“The BJP is set to return to power with full majority and form government for a third consecutive term… people will vote on the basis of overall development of the state over the last 10 years,” Kiran Choudhry told PTI.
Asked about anti-incumbency, she said, "”On the contrary, there is pro-incumbency in Haryana and people realise the party led government has transformed their lives and taken the state on a new growth trajectory towards new heights of development".
Every section, she added, is happy with the policies and programmes of the government. A number of welfare initiatives have been taken and schemes brought in for farmers, she said.
Haryana is procuring 24 crops at MSP. Last month, Chief Minister Nayab Saini approved a proposal to give Rs 2,000 per acre as bonus to farmers for their Kharif crops in the wake of less rainfall in the state, the BJP MP said.
“What we have done for farmers, let Congress do in their party-ruled states…,” she said, adding that her former party, in which she remained for more than 30 years, had done nothing for farmers and uses them only for doing politics, she alleged.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the MP said, has special concern for farmers and already implemented several farmer friendly policies in the 100 days of his third term.
"And we are well on the path to realise the PM's vision of a developed India by 2047," she said. The Rajya Sabha MP is equally confident her daughter will win Tosham, her old constituency.
As the two cousins go head to head in the constituency, she said Shruti’s campaign is going full throttle and she would win hands down.
Her Congress rival Anirudh Chaudhry is a former treasurer of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and grandson of Bansi Lal. He is the son of Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the late Surender Singh's brother.
"Tosham was also part of Shruti's parliamentary segment (when she was MP from Bhiwani). Due to her personal efforts, she brought in a lot of projects from the Centre at that time. After Chaudhary Bansi Lal and my husband Chaudhary Surender Singh, I represented the constituency (for four terms). People of Tosham are like a family," she said.
In her view, Mahendra never got along with his father and brother.
"When were they (Mahendra) part of the family… Mahendra even contested against his brother and has the distinction of losing badly (when Mahendra had fought the Bhiwani Lok Sabha against Surender Singh in 1998)".
Kiran Choudhry said people of Tosham still resent the fact that a state level stadium went to former chief minister Bhupinder Hooda’s constituency instead of Bhiwani, their town, when Mahendra Chaudhry was BCCI president.
Taking on the Congress, she said its dreams of coming to power in Haryana will never come true.
"Where is the Congress in Haryana? It is only bapu-beta (referring to former chief minister Bhupinder Hooda and his MP son Deepender Hooda) and they have finished the Congress in Haryana.
"When Hooda was the chief minister, he failed to look outside Rohtak. Congress returned to power in Haryana in 2005 after some gap winning 67 seats... the elections at that time were not fought under Hooda's leadership, but he was made CM after the poll results were out." Later, under Hooda, Congress could manage to win just 40 seats in 2009 and barely managed to form the government.
"In 2014, the Congress tally went down further to 15 seats. In 2019 too, they could not form the government under him (Hooda)," she said.
She said the Congress is mistaken if it feels the Jats are with it.
Choudhry, who also belongs to the Jat community, also accused her former party of spreading falsehoods during the Lok Sabha polls that the BJP would scrap the Constitution and end reservation if it returned to power with overwhelming majority.
"Now, their mask is off," she said, while taking on the Congress over Rahul Gandhi's recent remark on reservation during his recent US visit where he said the Congress would think of scrapping reservations when "India is a fair place".
The votes for the October 5 election will be counted on October 8.