Farmers Movement Archive

JJP votes did not shift to BJP, says Jai Prakash Dalal on Baroda

CHANDIGARH: A day after Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar claimed that all votes of JJP did not go to BJP’s Yogeshwar Dutt in Baroda, agriculture and farmers welfare minister Jai Prakash Dalal also said on Thursday that Dutt did not get the votes of their alliance partner in the assembly byelection. Dalal, who was the party’s in-charge for the bypoll, also alleged caste polarisation by Congress. “The vote bank of JJP belonged to a particular caste, which had the share of around 50% of the total votes in the constituency. But, it was shifted to Congress candidate because of the ‘Jativaad’ (caste) and ‘Ilaqavaad’ (area-based) politics by the Congress leaders. Had we got the JJP votes the way they bagged in October 2019, we would have certainly won,” Dalal claimed. In a chat with TOI on the results of Baroda bypoll, in which BJP lost by a margin of around 10,000 votes from Congress, Dalal said former MP Raj Kumar Saini, who contested in Baroda, was also one of the factors for their defeat. “Total of 5,600 votes polled by Saini in Baroda were our votes. Saini played into the hands of Congress leaders and contested the election only to harm the BJP nominee,” Dalal asserted. The minister also pointed out that the failure of the INLD candidate to get more votes also affected BJP prospects. “Had he managed to get around 10,000 votes, we would have easily won. But, because of the caste polarisation to some extent, we faced defeat.” Dalal stated that since their vote share in Baroda has increased, it could not be termed a humiliating defeat. On a question about the impact of farmers’ anguish over the central farm laws, Dalal said initially the farmers in Baroda were apprehensive of losing mandis and MSP for their crop.

The Times of India

2020-11-13

Chandigarh