What Matters : Charismatic Leadership, Party or the Development, Ahirwal in Haryana answers the important question

As the polling concluded in the late hours of the 25th May in Haryana, supporters of different candidates started predicting the margin of win and rout in the state. The Ahirwal region which includes the constituencies of Gurugram and Bhiwani-Mahendargarh mainly, witnessed interesting electoral battles this time. Ahirwal saw the contest between the Rampura house scion Rao Inderjit Singh for BJP and actor Raj Babbar for Congress from the Millennium City Gurugram, while two old college friends Rao Dan Singh from Congress and Ch. Dharambir Singh from BJP faced each other in the Bhiwani-Mahendargarh region.

During the conversation with The Haryana Story team, people seemed assured of a big win for the important political force of Ahirwal, Rao Inderjit Singh but when asked about the contest between Rao Dan Singh and Dharambir Singh, the opinion seemed somehow divided. Some preferred the congress candidate on the issue of unemployment in the region while some chose the BJP referring to the corruption allegations against Rao Dan Singh’s son. But when asked about the supporters of both parties over the main issues on which they voted, the answer came surprisingly similar in the majority of the cases.

When asked about whom he voted for, Krishan Kumar Sen was spotted wearing a “Modi Once More 2024” t-shirt in the Dohar Kalan village of Narnaul city, answered proudly smoking hookah outside the polling booth, and said “ We voted on the face of Modi, what he has done for the country in last 10 years no other leader was able to do so, Modi removed Article 370, Modi fought the battle for Ram Mandir, Modi ended terrorism in the country, what else he could do for the country” asked Krishan Kumar while smirking at the congress supporters who were sitting besides and sipping the hookah. Krishan Kumar, then asked the question which echoed most in the election rallies of the country, “For whom Modi is doing all this, he doesn’t have any son like Sonia Gandhi neither have any family of his own?” 

At this juncture, the congress sympathizers intervened and started arguing with their political bete noirs. When the team asked, Mr. Sher Singh, a government teacher in the nearby village of Jailaf, he surprisingly answered “We voted on the face of Rao Inderjit Singh, he is the sole reason why we are voting for the BJP candidate. For us in our village, what matters the most is the name of Rao Inderjit Singh, then comes the face of Modi ji, and after that comes the name of the Lok sabha candidate from our region”. 

While asked about whom he voted for, Congress sympathizer Mahendra Kumar donning his white t-shirt with the hand symbol of Congress, Mahendra answered, “ We voted for Rahul Gandhi. We attended the rally of Rahul Gandhi in Mahendragarh and we will cherish the moment forever when he waved at us in the front of the stage. He is fighting for the democracy and constitution of the country, he is fighting against Modi’s rich friends, he is the only leader who can fight Modi in India”.

After talking to a few other sympathizers of both the parties in Dohar Kalan, the team moved to some nearby villages like Jat-dominated Mohanpur and Gurjar-dominated Jailaf, surprisingly, the answers were more on similar lines. People praised the BJP for all the development works like the 152 D highway, the regular water supply, and the logistics hub in Nangal Chaudhary but the traditional voting pattern which is often observed in the countryside of India, dominated the minds of the voters in the region.

Charismatic leadership which is often quoted as one of the important constituents of the voting pattern by political scientists, reigned supreme here also. People seemed excited putting their weight behind the popular face of the region, Rao Inderjit Singh, who emerged as the sole leader of the Ahirs (Yadavs) in the election. While there was no dearth of people who voted for BJP because of Modi’s charisma, the regional heavyweight Rao Inderjit Singh seemed ahead in this race of influencing the voters in the villages.

The Congress party lacked any such strong face in the Ahirwal, people backed the congress candidate keeping Rahul Gandhi in the front. This analysis from The Haryana Story team also shatters the myth that this election is not about national issues and that people are just focusing on regional issues. This election is certainly about national issues with a mix of some regional aspirations. Nonetheless, the fate of all the 10 candidates is locked in the EVM machines, it will be interesting to see whose fortune will smile on the 4th of June.