Rahul's endorsement of Haryana land policy a boost to beleaguered Hooda
The virulent attack on the Mayawati regime through the four-day padyatra in villages along the Yamuna Expressway and the kisan mahapanchayat in Aligarh held out Hooda as the Congress's counter to its most consequential rival. That Rahul hardsold the Jat leader's policy makes it that bit more significant.
Many see this singular development as having made Hooda politically stronger in the wake of a faltering second innings. He won a repeat term despite the results falling short of his claims, but not without a question mark on his supreme status and a resurgent rival lobby in the party.
Amid speculation on the impact of land acquisition campaign on Hooda's stature, a senior Congress leader dismissed the conclusions being drawn. He said the Haryana policy being hailed as brilliant was a Congress policy. "And it is limited to land. The other things about a government remain in their place," he said. While Deepender Hooda, the CM's son, was part of the padyatra, rivals drew attention to the fact that he was not on the dais.
The verdict is split but few deny that Hooda is stronger than the recent past when he was under fire for his "soft Jat upmanship" in dalit incidents, honour killings and quota agitation. That Rahul himself visited Mirchpur after the dastardly attacks on dalit houses was seen as expression of the leadership's displeasure aimed at cutting political costs.
The irony behind Hooda's revival has not escaped many post-padyatra. Primarily, the heir apparent has attested to his good work for farmers, a constituency that Congress is cultivating in the wake of anger over land acquisition in UP. But he has also emerged as the AICC's reply to Mayawati, who had picked on the Haryana CM to "expose" Congress's dalit outreach.
With Rahul visiting dalit households in UP and accusing BSP of paying lip service to the dalit cause, a rattled Mayawati had latched on to Mirchpur and other incidents to question the genuineness of Congress's claims. She even wrote to the President to embarrass the Congress, as party leaders began to say that Haryana incidents could neutralise Rahul's campaign.
That Congress values dalit constituency as its traditional support base and had returned the state leadership to Jats after a long innings with the non-Jat Bhajan Lal, led to the charge finding resonance. A leader said Congress citing Haryana policy in UP with such intensity showed that it was not afraid of Hooda's name boomeranging. He pointed to the fact that Mayawati had herself compared the state's new land policy to Haryana's policy.
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