A woman walks past defaced political graffiti of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in an alley in Rohtak, which is located in Haryana State’s Kurukshetra, north of India.
So far, the ‘corruption’ issue remains a critical aspect for political parties to attack each other as they campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, this matter seems less important for some of Kurukshetra’s voters.
While intense electoral campaigns are on-going and Kurukshetra goes to polls on May 25; it is almost certain that this will be a straight fight between the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), who have put up an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate under their seat sharing agreement. The Indian National Lok Dal and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidates are also in the fray.
The AAP has fielded its candidate for Kurukshetra constituency in Haryana while Congress will contest the remaining nine seats.
With high soaring temperature all over Kurukshetra, candidates are running all over urban and rural areas to make an impact. AAP has accused BJP government in the State, attacking it on account of ‘corruption’. Sushil Gupta, AAP’s nominee accused corruption being rampant during BJP regime with a promise to get rid of it when elected as M.P. However BJP leaders including Naveen Jindal argue that their government has been responsible by not only fighting but also preventing corruption using a transparent administration.
At a time when major parties keep throwing jabs at each other during heated up campaigns, Amrik Singh –a farmer residing in Radaur town – appears not worried at all because he does not trust any political party anymore since they had been promising him big things about ending corruption amids his pessimism towards them prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
For his part, Mr. Singh, who owns about ten acres of land, said that “corruption seems like a small issue nowadays. Very few people are bothered about corruption. At one point in time political parties would make tall claims on corruption and then they join hands for politics sake. They always criticised Congress but AAP has now joined hands with them and are jointly contesting, so where do they stand ethically?”
“On the other hand, the BJP has fielded Naveen Jindal, who is an accused in the coal block allocation scam during the UPA government. The party always targeted him over corruption but now he is with them. Corruption is not regarded as a serious issue by both sides”, he adds, “My vote shall be based on what Centre and state govt did for me as farmer.”
Pawan Kumar, who is in business for himself, in his expression of the same sentiment said; “People always pay attention to corruption as a matter but I think that political parties are using it just for their benefit and to attract voters. Firstly, Mr. Jindal was accused by BJP of coal scam and now he has been made their contestant, what does this show? And the same goes for Congress party and AAP.”
In Ladwa, Haryana’s Pawan Sonti remarked: “For political parties, raising corruption issue is a platform for winning votes while to people it has become more personal thing with less or zero interest unless on one particular person. It is not surprising that politicians make many promises during election season and then they easily forget most of them.”
Kurukshetra Parliamentary constituency used to be a stronghold of the Congress until 2014 when Raj Kumar Saini from BJP won this seat. Nayab Singh Saini from BJP clinched the seat in Lok Sabha elections 2019. In March, Mr. Saini replaced Manohar Lal as Chief Minister of Haryana.
