Development and caste outweigh the fight for Bansi Lal’s political legacy in Haryana’s Tosham

Congress's Anirudh Chaudhary faces BJP cousin in Haryana's Tosham, highlighting development vs. legacy in political battle.

Not betraying any signs of fatigue while addressing his tenth election meeting at Lalawas village in Haryana’s Bhiwani on Friday (September 20, 2024), Congress’s Tosham nominee Anirudh Chaudhary, a hefty man in his late 40s, quickly rises from his chair. “It is the beginning of a new era”, he declares to the crowd, as he, like his grandfather and late Chief Minister Bansi Lal, starts his political career from the same party and the same Assembly segment.

“Being a grandson of Bansi Lal, I am contesting this election with dignity,” continues Mr. Chaudhary, a sports administrator-turned-politician, amid loud applause. He adds, “Rumours are being spread about me, but I am least worried as they are all lies. The BJP candidate pitted against me is my cousin, Shruti. I hold her mother and my aunt Kiran Choudhry in great respect. If they come to seek votes, show full respect to them, but vote only for your brother,” quips Mr. Chaudhary, amid a loud laughter and slogans of “Anirudh Bhai Zindabad”.

Bansli Lal family’s stronghold, Tosham, one of the Assembly constituencies in the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat, sees a political contest within his clan this time around. Both national parties have fielded the grandchildren of the late Chief Minister, known as the “architect of modern Haryana”.

Maniram, a resident of Lalawas, however, says the election is not about the “legacy of Chaudhary Bansi Lal” but about “vikas” (development) and “badlav” (change). Despite the village being dominated by Brahmins, considered to be traditional BJP voters, Hanuman, another resident, says irrigation and drinking water issues are major talking points here, and there is resentment against the Agniveer scheme, unemployment and the way the BJP government treated the “farmers and wrestlers”.

Sitting outside a sweet shop in Biran village among a group of men, Sanjay Yadav, who belongs to an Other Backward Class (OBC), claims “more than 300 men in the village got government jobs in his village on merit” during the BJP rule. A man next to him, Dullichand Saini, recalls how “the son of a small-time vendor in the village became a Junior Engineer,” which he says, was unthinkable during the previous regimes when the lists were prepared at the residences of Ministers.

Mukesh Sheroan of Sahlewala village says that Ms. Shruti and her mother Ms. Kiran Choudhry, the sitting Tosham MLA, quitting the Congress and joining the BJP a few months back had turned many of their workers against them. “It is easy for leaders to shift loyalties, but not for the workers,” says the 27-year-old farmer, adding that “farmers’ agitation is a big issue in this region, especially in Jat-dominated villages, and Ms. Kiran Choudhary’s workers who had garnered support for the agitation could not change their stance like her.” He says that workers have direct access to Mr. Chaudhary, unlike Ms. Shruti and her mother, who only interact with a “select few”.

Dharamapal, who runs an auto workshop close to Congress’s election office, says that Tosham had seen a lot of development during Ms. Kiran Choudhry’s tenure as MLA, including establishment of a court complex, colleges, a lake and herbal park. “Had she stayed with the Congress, it would have given more edge to her daughter. But then she had little choice, with some party leaders bent on finishing her politically,” says the 53-year-old.