Mahendra: Is Lady Luck smiling?

Mundhal (Haryana), Jan. 30: If Ranbir Singh Mahendra is third-time lucky in this Assembly poll, he can thank Jagmohan Dalmiya?s casting vote.

Mahendra?s elevation as the chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India last year, via his predecessor?s casting vote, has given him a profile in Haryana that he never had before.

He is trying his luck a second time, as the Congress candidate, from the Mundhal Khurd rural constituency in Jat-dominated Bhiwani district.

Though a Jat, Mahendra had lost the 1998 Lok Sabha polls in Bhiwani and the 2000 Assembly elections in Mundhal Khurd, sandwiched in the Jat-vs-Jat battle of his father, Bansi Lal, and Om Prakash Chautala.

This time, however, the Jat card is not working. Not many remember an election in Haryana in the last three decades in which the dominant community, constituting a fourth of the state?s electorate, has not polarised behind a favoured Jat leader.

But now people are unhappy with chief minister Chautala and two of his sons, whose Indian National Lok Dal has realised the irrelevance of the Jat card to the outcome of the February 3 polls to the 90-member Assembly.

The strange situation has prompted many in the Congress to wonder whether the party at all needed the recent merger of Bansi Lal?s Haryana Vikas Party with it.

With veteran Jat leaders like Chautala and his father failing to inspire voters of the community, Mahendra is standing tall. He is also helped by the resultant lack of polarisation between Jat and non-Jat voters because of which there is little focus on state Congress chief Bhajan Lal, the tallest non-Jat leader.

The spotlight is thus thrust on Mahendra in Mundhal Khurd as his position as BCCI chief has given him VIP status. He had won that battle in a neck-and-neck fight with Union minister Sharad Pawar.

Mahendra may have to wait for more than three weeks for the results of the polls but that may only be a matter of formal declaration of the outcome.

His INLD rival for the last election and the sitting MLA ? a Jat ? is not even in the frame this time. Chautala has instead fielded Raghubir Singh, a Thakur.

The BJP, the third main contender for Mundhal Khurd, has fielded Om Prakash Mann, a local Jat leader who was once with the erstwhile Haryana Vikas Party.

Mahendra is all smiles and the reasons are not far to seek. In the 43 villages that constitute his Assembly battle turf, the ruling INLD?s campaign is evoking laughter among people.

On Friday afternoon, just before Mahendra?s arrival in Mithalthal village, barely a few kilometres from Bhiwani town, the residents burst into laughter when an INLD campaigner announced over the loudspeaker: ?CM Chautala will come here tomorrow.?

The laughter prompted the announcer to ask: ?What?s the matter??

But then he quickly joined them in their moment of humour at his party?s cost. ?You can at least listen to Chautalaji. Our victory is certain,? he said with a nervous laugh.

Raj Narayan, a local INLD leader who had come to see Mahendra, quipped: ?Our victory is certain ? in the next elections coming after five years.?

If the Chautala camp is reconciled to the prospects of a defeat, the BJP, too, is not making any claim of winning this election.

Ajay Kumar, a BJP leader in nearby Tigdana village, is convinced his party is fighting this election only as a precursor to a real battle in the future.

Not surprisingly then, BJP candidate Mann displayed a sporting spirit as his convoy went past a gathering of Congress leaders and sympathisers in a neighbouring village. He joined the rival party?s gathering and greeted the leaders individually.