By Jaideep Sarin,
Chandigarh : Politicians, it is said, come in all hues and this is certainly true in Haryana with a plethora of colours on view ahead of next month’s assembly elections.
Leading parties are identifying themselves with different colours in the run-up to the October 15 polls for 90 seats. Be it headgear like turbans, scarves, dupattas or jackets and kurtas or even their vehicles – leaders of various parties are actually wearing their respective political colours.
Having been in power close to a decade, the Congress definitely wants to project that it is in the “pink” of health despite the uphill political task that it faces in this election. Pink is the colour that the Haryana Congress had adopted for itself under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Hooda himself sports a pink turban at every political event that he goes to. He had introduced the pink colour during a Congress rally at New Delhi’s Ramlila Ground in November 2012 and addressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The majority of the crowd in the rally wore pink headgear to identify themselves as being from Haryana.
“The Congress has made Haryana No.1 in all fields. The Congress will win the elections and get a third term in office,” Hooda told IANS ahead of hitting the campaign trail with his pink headgear firnmly in place.
Haryana’s main opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has always been associated with its green colour and flags. Its leaders generally sport green headgear. Its Green Brigade was once infamous for hooliganism, extortion and corruption when the INLD was in power till 2004.
The INLD, in its recent campaign, tried to run down the Congress as the “Gulabi (pink) Gang”, a parody on the film of the same name about a group of vigilante women.
Taking its first shot at its own government in Haryana, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants its saffron colour to make significant inroads into the dusty politics of Haryana’s hinterland.
“If the parties adopt a particular colour, it is easy to identify supporters of that party. At big political rallies, the party colour becomes a symbol of its strength and support base,” INLD supporter Yashveer Malik told IANS.
The Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), which recently parted ways with the BJP on a highly sour note, wants the state to be painted yellow. HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of former chief minister Bhajan Lal, is seen sporting yellow half-jackets. At times, he is seen driving yellow-coloured tractors, the HJC symbol, for political events. His wife, Renuka Bishnoi, wore a yellow salwar suit when she filed her nomination papers for the assembly polls.
Two new entrants in Haryana’s political field, the Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) and the Jan Chetna Party (JCP), have adopted orange and dark pink as their colours.
The HLP has been floated by disgraced former minister Gopal Kanda, who faces trial in the rape and abetment to suicide case of an airhostess and is currently out on bail.
The JCP has been launched by former union minister Venod Sharma, who was Chief Minister Hooda’s closest associate for over nine years till they fell out over political differences. Sharma left the Congress, with which he had remained associated for over four decades, and Hooda’s company just before the April-May Lok Sabha polls.
But not everyone is impressed by the colours of various parties.
“These colours do not matter. The true colours of the parties and leaders are known only after the elections. The voters now want delivery of election promises. After all, voters are not colour blind,” homemaker Sheela Rani of Yamunanagar told IANS, indicating she didn’t care a fig for what was on offer.
(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at [email protected])