Rahul Gandhi, BJP And The Jalebi Factor In Haryana Polls

The two keywords in this Haryana election were Jats and Jalebis. The Congress bet heavily on both, but the trends show this has not paid off.

The renowned jalebis in Haryana's Gohana featured in Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's speech in the run-up to the Assembly polls. His remarks calling for mass manufacture and export of the juicy sweet dish were also mocked by the BJP.

This morning, after early trends showed a Congress lead, jalebis were distributed at the Congress office in Delhi as party workers celebrated prematurely. The later rounds of counting, however, saw the BJP claw back and then surge far ahead of the main Opposition. Now it was the ruling party's turn to celebrate. And how do they plan to do it? Party sources have said that jalebis have been ordered for the grand celebration at the BJP headquarters. The choice of the sweet dish is a clear political message from the BJP to the Congress and Mr Gandhi.

Addressing a rally in Gohana, Mr Gandhi held up a box of jalebis from Mathu Ram Halwai and said these should be sold across the country and exported too. This, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said, will generate more employment opportunities.

"If his (Mathu Ram) jalebi is sold in other states and is also exported, then 20,000-"50,000 more people can work in his factory one day," he said, adding that traders like Mathu Ram had been hurt by the Centre's demonetisation and GST moves.

The Congress leader's remarks drew jibes from BJP leaders, who said he was clueless about how the sweet dish was prepared. Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "I also like Gohana's jalebi. Now, Rahul Gandhi is talking about setting up a factory in the US. But one has to understand how jalebis are made and how they are sold. It would have been better if those who wrote the chit for him had framed it properly." The BJP veteran said Mr Gandhi "does not do his homework properly".

Interestingly, the Gohana jalebi had also featured in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech ahead of the Lok Sabha polls months ago.

Attacking the INDIA bloc, the Prime Minister said the Opposition bloc had a formula to have five Prime Ministers in five years if they came to power. "Ask them is the prime minister's post our Matu Ram ki jalebi?" he asked.

The famed Gohana jalebi, according to a PTI report, came into being in 1958 when the late Matu Ram started selling it. The business is run by his grandsons Raman Gupta and Neeraj Gupta now.

"The jalebi is made of pure desi ghee, is crispy yet soft and each one weighs around 250 gram. A box of four pieces weighing a kg costs Rs 320. The shelf life of the sweet is more than a week," Raman Gupta told PTI.

Narrating the journey of the Gohana jalebi, Mr Gupta said, "Gohana has a big grain market. The farmers used to toil very hard in the fields, and even in adverse weather conditions. The big jalebi made of pure desi ghee not only gave them the needed calories, but it also had a shelf life of many days and they could relish it at any time.

"Initially, it was a small shop and over the years when it became famous, even top politicians crossing through Gohana used to spare time to relish the sweet," he said.