Space for regional forces in Haryana further shrinks as BJP and Congress corner around 80% vote share in Haryana

Chautalas' political influence wanes as BJP secures third consecutive win in Haryana, leaving regional parties struggling for relevance.

Along with the return of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in Haryana for a record third time in a row, the Haryana Assembly election results declared on Tuesday also marked the end of road for regional political forces led by the Chautala family, and dashed the hopes of new entrants, including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Azad Samaj Party (ASP), in trying to find a toehold in the arena.

Having influenced the State’s politics for more than four decades, the Chautalas, already weakened by the split in the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the formation of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) in 2018, were decisively pushed to political oblivion in this result.

Both Chautala-led factions failed to leave any mark despite entering into separate alliances with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the ASP in pursuit of the votes of the Scheduled Caste communities.

Also Read: Haryana Assembly election results LIVE: BJP scores hat-trick, Congress suffers jolt

Though the INLD managed to win the Dabwali and the Rania Assembly segments, the party’s secretary-general and the INLD-BSP alliance’s chief ministerial candidate Abhay Chautala lost decisively to the Congress’s Bharat Singh Beniwal by more than 15,000 votes. Contesting 55 seats, the INLD secured only 4.14% votes, which is around two percentage points higher than its vote share in the 2019 Assembly election.

In a bid to revive his party, Mr. Abhay Chautala had taken out a 215-day padayatra (foot march) in 2023, passing through all 90 Assembly constituencies of the State to reconnect with the electorate ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections and reclaim the political ground ceded to its breakaway group, but it failed to make any difference on the ground, as shown by the results.

The JJP, on the other hand, suffered a massive blow, with its vote share reducing from 14.8% to less than one per cent, and former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala lost his security deposit from Uchana Kalan, the Chautala family bastion.