Gurgaon, a long-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stronghold, may prove to be an electoral challenge for the BJP as Haryana prepares for the October 5 Assembly elections.
The party, thanks to six-time parliamentarian and senior leader Rao Inderjit Singh, has successfully maintained a strong grip on the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat, winning three consecutive terms since 2014 and successfully defeating the Congress and the regional party, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in prior Assembly battles.
However, the upcoming assembly elections in Gurgaon are interesting due to the internal rifts within the BJP following recent candidate selections.
The Gurgaon parliamentary constituency, which covers nine Assembly seats across three districts, four in Gurgaon, three in Mewat, and two in Rewari, has always been a critical political battleground. Historically, the BJP has achieved remarkable strength in the urban segments of this region. This time, internal clashes and dissatisfaction among party members threatened the BJP’s performance in this segment.
The dissatisfaction among the party workers arises after the allocation of tickets, sidelining experienced party workers and igniting rebellion. The impact of this discord could be affecting voter turnout and loyalty.
The selection of candidates may affect party dominance in Gurgaon, which further weakens the party’s voter base.
The Gurgaon includes four seats from the district: Gurgaon, Badshahpur, Sohna, and Pataudi. In the 2019 state assembly elections, the BJP secured three of these four seats, except for Badshahpur, which elected independent candidate Rakesh Janghu alias Daultabad. Rakesh had beaten BJP’s Manish Yadav by a margin of 10,000 votes.
The Gurgaon seat has historically been an urban seat and a mixture of Punjabi, Brahmin and Vaishya (Baniya) castes. In the last election, BJP’s Sudhir Singla won comfortably, defeating his closest rival by more than 32,000 votes, while the Congress candidate Sukhbir Kataria finished third.
This time the has denied sitting MLA Sudhir Singla a ticket for the upcoming election, opting instead for Mukesh Sharma, a wrestler turned politician and a close associate of Rao Inderjit Singh, the party’s MP from the area from Gurgaon seat.
The party’s decision has sparked internal dissatisfaction, leading to the resignation of senior leaders like G L Sharma, a former vice president of the Haryana state BJP unit, and Navin Goel. Their resignation is likely to affect party voter sentiment significantly. Meanwhile, the Congress party, which has fielded Mohit Grover, a young Punjabi leader, who recently joined the Congress, had secured second position as an independent candidate in the previous assembly election.
The BJP’s new candidate, Mukesh Sharma, ‘s success in this election may not be easy because Gurgaon is currently facing numerous civic issues,s, including infrastructure failures, waterlogging, poor road conditions, pollution, water shortages, and inconsistent electricity supply.
