Nathan Sahiya*, a strikingly lean man resplendent in a rather dirt laden faint-blue shirt, works as a janitor at Ashoka. “All well, Bhaiyya!” he said, despite a visibly long day. Politics massively excited him despite the little prospects on offer. “We cast votes- that’s okay”, he spoke in a tone of indifference, “but we don’t expect anything,” he confessed.
For him and several of his colleagues, gathered around him like an entourage, elections were a fancy prelude to a disappointment. “Whosoever wins the elections, the poor would stay poor,” Sahiya sighed.
Haryana voted today—Saturday, October 5th— in an election braced for rough battles. The state has been a decade-long Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stronghold, with successive terms under Manohar Lal Khattar, enabling it to cultivate a dedicated voter base in the state. Scaffolding its voter outreach with a massive social penetration, the BJP seems to have ‘come-of-age’ in Haryana.
However, the long-decade rule of the BJP has stirred sentiments of anti-incumbency among the voters. In perhaps a defining moment, the General Elections held earlier this year suggested rough waters for the BJP, with the electorate liberally divided between them and the Indian National Congress (INC) at 5 seats each. This presented a stark contrast to the 2019 General elections, in which the BJP won all 10 seats. The results were surprising and the INC suddenly found themselves resuscitated onto the Haryana political landscape.
The shock invited hopes of a relatively balanced contest ahead of an election in October, evaporating previous expectations of a landslide BJP win. The election, as a consequence, harbours hope for dissent in a sternly saffronized state.
However, despite an animated political spectacle outside, the rank-and-file employees at Ashoka University see little promise in the elections. Yet they vote. “What would one vote do?” said Saddish Kumar*, a security guard stationed at the new on-campus Dominos outlet lamented, following his tirade against the ruling government on unemployment. “My mother is dead and my father is a pathological drinker,” he continued, softly, “I earn and finance my brother’s education.”
Sentiments of apathy were mirrored amongst other university staff who spoke to The Edict. Speaking on conditions of anonymity, a janitor confessed his disgust with tentative consideration during elections. “They visit us when they need us; we are forgotten soon.” “I will tell you!” a fellow worker cut in, “It’s the Village Head who seeks votes at the behest of a party. They make frequent visits and pledge government housing, subsidised ration cards, free plots to kids, etc.”
Politics in rural Haryana was little a question of choice, The Edict soon learnt. The Gaon Pradhaan (Village Head), de facto authority in the rural spaces, conditioned the political preferences of people labouring their way to survival. “Our name is stripped from subsidised rations if we don’t vote,” workers spoke in chorus. Expecting the subsidised essentials, thus, stood contingent on the willingness to vote; and to vote the instructed. The charitable attitude, however, quickly returned to patterns of brazen indifference, once the elections drew to a close, the colleagues insisted.
Such radical articulations of resentment, however, little dictated their political preference; the BJP remained the preferred ballot. “No expectations,” Sahiya shook his head, remarking on the changes they anticipated from the elections. The strange apathy, however, swiftly morphed into a frenzied support for the ruling government. “We were kicked around everywhere [hinting at the INC], BJP has changed that,” Sahiya mumbled with a sense of pride, pledging vote for BJP in the same breath.
The interviewees by and large identified with Scheduled Caste (SC) and confessed access to meagre resources. “I have been in debt for a year now!” Samreeth Lal* said, “I have already taken an advance of INR 30000 from my hiring firm.” The salary ran the house and the advance paid the debts, which now meant months of work without access to capital. Like several of his colleagues, he oscillates between extreme debt and little debt.
Regardless of the economic and social privation, the would-be voters, however, could brook little criticism of the ruling dispensation. “BJP should win; If it doesn’t bring us good, it still does the country,” Jaiveesht Niranjun, a janitor hailing from Baduli, Faridabad announced. The disillusionment with electoral procedures yet an excitement to vote perhaps stands as a unique paradox of subaltern Haryana: “For all the things they (BJP) have done, we can certainly forgive their small sins.”
While some of the staff workers at Ashoka The Edict spoke to believe that the BJP brings some fortune to the country, Haryana-based student voters have a different perspective. “I have nothing but grievances against the BJP government,” said Vikram Tapadia (ASP’25). He believes that the roads and the metro in Gurgaon have deteriorated and that the Khattar government “had been more focused on keeping his chair than actually working on anything new in the last five years.”
The current Chief Minister of Haryana, Nayab Singh Saini, seems to be an inconsequential face for many student voters; most of them addressed their grievances with the election and incumbent government to Khattar/local MLAs.
Improved infrastructure, more employment, better education, women’s safety, and empowering schemes for women and farmers seem to be the core issues for student voters. The Edict spoke to Vierra Datta* (UG’28), who also complained of deteriorating roads and the metro. “Government built roads are in a sad state,” Datta said.
Minali Chanda* (UG’27) a native of Sonipat believes that her constituency is dissatisfied with the BJP government. “They did not listen to the people’s voice,” she says, accusing the incumbent government of developing a voter bank rather than working to fulfil their campaign promises.
Chanda senses that Sonipat’s electorate is finding it tough to form a connection with a relatively new candidate, Nikhil Madan, contesting on a BJP ticket from Sonipat. However, Jayati Manaser* (UG’27), who worked for an NGO in Sonipat and votes from the constituency, praised Madan. “We used to go to slum areas and teach people, he got us a whole community centre for ourselves by asking the government,” she said.
Yet, she has her grievances with the government—improper drainage facilities led to water logging in her school. “During monsoon, in my school (in Sonipat)," she admitted, "there used to be knee length water, despite the rain not being heavy.”
Infrastructural problems do not seem to be limited to cities and towns such as Gurgaon and Sonipat. Harisha Saksi* (UG’26), hailing from a village near Rohtak, claimed there is a lack of infrastructure to improve women’s safety in Haryana. “The path from my gym to the car is the most daunting part and has only aggravated,” she sighed.
Saksi pointed out that the government’s failure to actually work stems from a codified approach to different social groups in the state. “If I am [to be] candid, the BJP targets Baniyas and Brahmins in Haryana and Congress does it for other groups — Muslims and Jaats. It is reflected in what is being prioritised and developed,” she said.
For Chanda, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former CM and current leader of the Opposition who has been campaigning aggressively and is a prominent Jaat face, has tilted the election in INC’s favour. After the 2016 Jat reservation agitation in Sonipat, the community is voting for the INC “by hook or by crook,” she said.
Tapadia, who previously predicted that the INC would outperform the BJP in Haryana during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, is confident that the INC will win majority seats on its own. Manaser, however, is convinced that INC will have to form a coalition government.
*Pseudonyms have been provided to some sources to preserve their anonymity.
(Fact checked by Aditya Roy)
(Edited by Keerthana Panchanathan and Srijana Siri)
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