BJP is going all out to woo the Jat vote bank in Haryana ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections. What underlines BJP’s hurriedness is the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Tuesday unveil the statue of peasant leader Sir Chhotu Ram at Garhi Sampla in Rohtak.
The event assumes even more significance as PM Modi is visiting Jat land much earlier than scheduled. He was earlier supposed to attend a BJP rally in Karnal on November 1 to mark the completion of four years of Manohar Lal Khattar government in the state.
However, the BJP was forced to advance his visit to October 9, owing to the pressure built by opposition party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which had been demanding immediate unveiling of the statue as it has been ready for about 9 months now.
BJP and INLD have locked horns over the unveiling of Sir Chhotu Ram’s statue in his paternal village as they try to cash-in on the political legacy of the peasant and Jat leader.
And for the BJP, it would be even more crucial as support from Jats, who comprise one-fourth of the population, has eroded over the last four years.
The erosion can be traced to the appointment of Khattar, the first non-Jat chief minister of the state, the inept handling of the Jat agitation by the state government and anti-Jat statements made by some party leaders, thereby worsening the situation.
Chief Minister Khattar, however, said the delay in unveiling of the statue was not an issue. “But since elections to three big states are due in November, PM Modi couldn’t have spared time later. So, he will be coming on October 9. We will be happy if he still makes it on November 1. However, our national president Amit Shah has assured that he will be present then,” he said.
But not just the BJP, all major political parties have tried their best to appropriate Sir Chhotu Ram’s legacy and ever since Haryana was carved out of erstwhile Punjab on November 1, 1966, not a single election has passed in which his name hasn’t been mentioned.
Union steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, the maternal grandson of Sir Chhotu Ram and has been invoking him every year on the occasion of Vasant Panchmi.
The former Congress veteran, who had switched to BJP during the last Lok Sabha polls, was the first to get constructed a memorial in his name in 2004.
Singh’s bête noire and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala had in 2005 organsied a huge rally in Garhi Sampla and had also dedicated a one-room museum which housed books, clothes and other items used by the peasant leader.
The real battle over his legacy kicked off in 2016 when Singh, calming to be his political heir, announced that a tall statue of his would be installed in Garhi Sampla and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will himself come to unveil the statue.
Subsequently, a 64-feet-tall iron statue was erected but the inauguration has been hanging fire for the past nine months. Meanwhile, the earlier, smaller statue, which was erected by OP Chautala was shifted to a government college in Sampla, drawing the ire of the INLD.
While it remains Singh’s dream project, the BJP has tried to woo the Jat vote bank from day one. The BJP has already rechristened Garhi Sampla village as Sir Chhotu Ram Nagar.
State finance minister Capt. Abhimanyu, when questioned over the issue denied having any political motive behind the unveiling of the statue, without forgetting to mention what his party had done in the name of Sir Chhotu Ram.
