Maharashtra, Haryana polls: Why BJP won’t change its two minority CM candidates

New Delhi, Sep 23: This time, both Maharashtra and Haryana will go to polls knowing fully well who the BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate would be.

In the 2014, there was a lot of guess work regarding who the candidates would be. Devendra Fadnavis who belongs to the Brahmin community and Manohar Lal Khattar, who hails from the Punjabi community are the CM candidates for Maharashtra and Haryana respectively.

Interestingly both communities are in minority in the respective states. The Punjabis make up for 8 per per cent of Haryana's population. In Haryana the Jats are in majority at 27 per cent.

In Maharashtra, the Brahmins make up for 10 per cent of the population, where as the Marathas constitute 33 per cent. This has not deterred the BJP and it has decided not to change the dynamic in both states.

Both leaders have handled the majority community with velvet gloves and they have had their share of problems too. In 2016, a violent Jat agitation demanded reservations as an OBC. This was granted by the Khattar government through a bill in which 6 per cent reservation was given in Class I and Class II Government jobs. For the Class III and Class IV jobs the reservation was 10 per cent.

In Maharashtra, Fadnavis was faced with a similar challenge. While rejecting the demands made by the Brahmins for caste based reservation, he granted 16 per cent reservation for the Marathas. This was a well thought out move by Fadnavis and had he given in to the demands by the Brahmins, he would have been seeing favouring the upper caste to which he belongs.

The BJP also understands that the it would not be right to change a winning combination. Moreover the minority castes have often stayed away from voting for someone from the majority casts. All this bodes well for the BJP and hence it has decided not to ruffle up the winning combination of both Khattar and Fadnavis.