With the filing of nominations by the State Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Ladwa Assembly Constituency has turned into high-stakes battles in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha election. Congress party has fielded its sitting MLA Mewa Singh from the seat. Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has named former MLA Sher Singh Barshami while Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) is likely to field its Kurukshetra senior vice-president Ranjeet Nain from the seat.
A keen multi-cornered contest is expected in the Ladwa Assembly segment of Kurukshetra this time. While the BJP candidate Saini is confident of winning this election, the candidates of Congress and other parties are leaving no stone unturned to get their victory from this constituency. The voting for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana will be held on October 5 and votes will be counted on October 8.
The Ladwa Constituency was carved out of the Thanesar constituency of Kururkshetra district in 2007 and two years later, it witnessed its first election in 2009. Sher Singh Barshami of INLD became its first MLA in 2009. However, he was convicted along with party supremo Om Prakash Chautala in the teachers’ recruitment scam. In the election that followed, in 2014, the BJP’s Pawan Saini defeated the INLD’s Bachan Kaur, Barshami’s wife, by 2,922 votes, but lost the seat to the Congress’s Mewa Singh in 2019 by 12,637 votes.
According to the 2011 Census, Scheduled Castes (SCs) comprise 22.6 percent of Ladwa’s population, with a significant chunk, 7.4 per cent, from the Saini community. The constituency is largely rural, with only 11.78 per cent of the population in urban areas.
As far as electoral performance is concerned, no parties have managed to win twice so far from this constituency since 2009. INLD won this seat in 2009, while in 2014 election went to BJP, then in 2019 Mewa Singh of Congress won this seat. However, it remains to be seen who will crown Ladwa Seat this time.
Haryana CM Saini is contesting from his fourth constituency since the 2014 Assembly polls. Saini had recently secured a victory from Karnal during the by-election held along with Lok Sabha polls in June. Ladwa is being seen as “the safest seat for Saini”. The BJP seems to be drawing confidence from the recent Lok Sabha polls, where it polled 47.14 per cent of the votes in the Ladwa Assembly segment, which is a part of the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat. This is less than the 58.5 per cent votes for the BJP from the segment in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the party had swept the state. But it is much more than the 32.7 percent of the votes it got in Ladwa in the 2019 Assembly polls. In 2014, Saini had successfully contested the Naraingarh Assembly seat and, five years later, won from the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat by a huge margin of over 6.8 lakh votes.
Sources in BJP said that Saini wanted to stick to Karnal, but was shifted to Ladwa as some of former CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s close aides were keen to contest from here. The Karnal ticket finally went to Jagmohan Anand, Khattar’s former media coordinator and ex-Karnal district president.
Talking to ‘The Pioneer’, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee Media head Kewal Dhingra said that CM Saini does not have the courage to contest from Karnal. He also cannot go back to his earlier seat of Naraingarh and chose Ladwa thinking it is a safe seat. He will not be able to succeed there as well, he added. Dhingra said that the people know that the INLD is a B team of the BJP and its only objective is to cut the votes of the Congress to help the ruling party. INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala had contested the Lok Sabha election from Kurukshetra but suffered a miserable defeat. The INLD will get the same result in the forthcoming Assembly elections, too. People from all sections of society are joining the Congress, he added.
Talking to reporters, Congress candidate and sitting MLA Mewa Singh said that in a democracy, every person has the right to contest elections. As Nayab Saini Singh has filed a nomination from the seat, people are asking him what he has done for Ladwa during his tenure as Kurukshetra MP and then as Chief Minister. The issue of the Ladwa bypass, Kurukshetra-Yamunanagar road expansion to four lanes and the Dadupur Nalvi canal project are some of the major issues in Ladwa. He will resolve these after Congress forms the Government in Haryana.
Caste equations are likely to play a major role in the elections here. Eyeing the OBC votes, BJP has fielded Haryana CM Saini from Ladwa assembly constituency. With a sizable OBC population, particularly Saini voters, it is being considered a safe seat for Saini. Unlike many other Assembly segments where the BJP and the Congress are in a direct contest, the Ladwa constituency is expected to witness a multi-cornered contest. For the regional parties, the reputation of the candidates will play a crucial role. The sitting MLA belongs to the Congress while INLD’s Barshami has strongholds in the constituency, Analysts added.
Ladwa Constituency will be Saini’s fourth shift of seats since 2014 when he made his electoral debut by winning as an MLA from his hometown Naraingarh. There is nothing wrong with Saini shifting his seat. In March, when he was elevated as chief minister, there was no other option than to contest from Karnal. Now, as the political situation has changed, he is contesting from Ladwa, which is considered a safe seat for him because of substantial OBC, particularly Saini votes.
BJP Govt curbed corruption, ended nepotism & empowered farmers, women & poor: CM Saini
After filing nomination papers from Ladwa Assembly Constituency, State Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Tuesday said that the BJP led Government has curbed corruption, ended nepotism and empowered farmers, women and the poor during its tenure. He was accompanied by his wife Suman Saini, Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal. Before filing his nomination, Saini held a roadshow in the Ladwa assembly segment where BJP supporters greeted him with garlands. Accompanied by party leaders, Saini drove a tractor during the roadshow. The last date for filing nominations is September 12. The scrutiny of the nomination papers will be conducted on September 13 and nominations can be withdrawn till September 16.
Speaking to reporters, Khattar said the BJP will form the government for a third time in Haryana. "Voters have made up their minds to form a BJP government for a third time," he said, replying to a question. The Congress is heading for a defeat in the assembly election, he claimed. Addressing a gathering earlier, the Chief Minister said the BJP government has given the state a new direction under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He claimed that the BJP government curbed corruption, ended nepotism and empowered farmers, women and the poor. Saini said his government took several decisions for the welfare of the people. "We worked in mission mode while the previous Congress government worked in commission mode," he said.
