Cong. hopes to cash in on Brahmin resentment against BJP in Haryana

Despite the BJP winning a majority in Haryana for the first time in the 2014 Assembly poll under a Brahmin State president, the party’s central leadership chose Manohar Lal, a Punjabi, as the Chief Minister.

In the Jat-dominated politics of Haryana, Brahmins, the second-largest community in the State, have largely remained sidelined after Bhagat Dayal Sharma, a Brahmin, became the first Chief Minister of Haryana in 1966.

Traditionally a Congress vote bank, a large chunk of the community shifted its loyalty to the Ram Bilas Sharma-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014, swayed by the “Modi wave” and disillusioned with the State Congress’s politics dominated by the Jats.

However, despite the BJP winning a majority in Haryana for the first time in the 2014 Assembly poll under a Brahmin State president, the party’s central leadership chose Manohar Lal, a Punjabi, as the Chief Minister.

A section of the Brahmins now feels the community didn’t get its “due” in the BJP. And the Congress hopes to cash in on this resentment ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections next year.

Speaking at a function in Rohtak last week, former Congress Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda promised four Deputy Chief Ministers, including one from the Brahmin community, if voted to power.

He also promised the restoration of job reservation under the Economically Weaker Sections category and setting up a “strong” Brahmin Commission.

A senior BJP leader, on condition of anonymity, said the community – comprising almost 12% of the State’s population – was “unhappy” with the treatment meted out by the BJP and felt “left out” while Punjabis and Banias, with almost half of the Brahmin population, cornered a lion’s share of the bureaucratic and political appointments.