As polling for Haryana Assembly elections is held on Monday, the ball is now in the court of around 1.83 crore voters who will decide the fate of 1,169 candidates in the results of the elections will be declared on October 24 and these voters would decide who would form the next Government in the state.
While the ruling BJP made scrapping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir a major poll plank, Opposition slammed the Government over issues of unemployment and farmers distress during electioneering. While sitting MLAs have made all efforts to retain their constituency, the oppositions were also used every tool at their disposal, from social media to door to door campaign and rallies. Multi-corner contests have been expected at many constituencies of the State. For the readers we bring a lowdown from all prominent constituencies of the State
Kaithal
The sitting Congress MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala is making all efforts to retain the constituency, while the BJP nominee Lila Ram Gujjar is confident of a win after the result of the recently concluded Lok Sabha election. Surjewala, who belongs to the Jat community, had defeated INLD’s Kailash Bhagat in the 2009 assembly polls by a margin of over 22,000 votes. In the last Assembly elections, Surjewala polled 65,524 votes, the INLD’s Kailash Bhagat 41,849 votes and the BJP’s Rao Surender Singh, who came third, got 38,171 votes. In the run up to the polls, Surjewala, who is also the Congress party's national spokesman, has been concentrating all his attention in his constituency, which has nearly 1.80 lakh voter strength that includes nearly 36,000 Jat votes while other communities here include the Gujjars, Dalits and the Punjabi community.
Ambala Cantonment
Satisfied with the work put in by him, five-time legislator Anil K Vij is confident of getting re-elected. For many, the BJP is an option due to lack of attractive alternatives. Though, this Vidhan Sabha constituency, close to state capital Chandigarh, had been equally represented by the BJP and the Congress five times each since its inception in 1967, the sitting five-time BJP MLA Anil K Vij has been the lone Independent candidate to win from here twice consecutively in 1996 and 2000. The results of the recently held Lok Sabha elections in which the BJP made a clean sweep by winning all 10 parliamentary seats in Haryana have left the ruling party upbeat and the Congress dejected while all other opposition parties are in deep slumber. “My work speaks for itself. ‘Kaam kiya hai, kaam karenge’ remains my slogan in every election. Ambala Cantonment is my home and its people my family. People had already put a stamp of approval on my work during the recent Lok Sabha poll,” said Anil K VIJ, BJP candidate.
Dadri
BJP rebel has entered the poll arena as Independent while Congress rebel is contesting on JJP ticket. Denied ticket by national political parties, including the BJP and the Congress, the unsuccessful applicants of these parties have jumped into the poll akhara, making the contest for the Dadri Assembly seat multi-cornered. In the given circumstances, Somvir was being considered a frontrunner for the saffron ticket in the 2019 Assembly poll. While the BJP candidate is banking upon the Prime Minister’s charisma, Congress nominee Major Sangwan has been attacking the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government over its alleged failure to provide the basis civic amenities to the people of the constituency.
Uchana Kalan
Uchana Kalan, one of the five Assembly constituencies of Jind district is all set for a gripping fight of supremacy between Haryana's two big political Jat families in the Assembly polls. The political rivalry between the Brijendra Singh's family and Chautalas is not new in Hisar. Both families are having a long political history and strong hold in the state. Singh's wife Prem Lata (59), a sitting MLA, was re-nominated from the seat by the BJP for the Assembly elections. Dushyant, even after winning Hisar Lok Sabha seat on INLD ticket in 2014 and has now floated separate political outfit, Jannayak Janta Party, filed his nomination from Uchana Kalan to give a fight to Prem Lata in this Assembly election.
Adampur
Congress party has fielded Kuldeep Bishnoi who is currently serving as third-time Member of the Legislative assembly from Adampur in the Hisar city of the State. Now the BJP has added glamour to Adampur assembly constituency by fielding TV actress and TikTok star Sonali Phogat in this constituency. JJP has fielded Ramesh Godara Jakhod, former district pradhan of Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) while Rajesh Godara is candidate of INLD from the same Constituency. While 15 candidates are contesting from this Jat-dominated constituency that has voter strength of over 1.60 lakh, the main contest is seen between Phogat and 51-year-old Bishnoi.
Garhi Sampla-Kiloi
Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been a chief minister for ten years and has won eight polls in his political career so far, but this time round, he is facing the battle of his life. Face to face with a resurgent BJP, counting on pro-incumbency votes, Hooda first turned rebellious and exerted pressure on the party's central leadership, making it replace Ashok Tanwar with Kumari Selja as the Haryana unit president. But to many, as the Congress struggles to revive itself in Haryana, Hooda remains the party's face in the state. The 72-year-old satrap, who has been chief minister twice and an MP four times, is seeking re-election from his home constituency Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district. Thirteen candidates are in the fray for this Jat-dominated seat with over two lakh voters. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Satish Nandal, a former Rohtak district unit president of the Indian National Lok Dal who switched sides earlier this year. Hooda has defeated Nandal twice, in 2009 and 2014 for the constituency.
Karnal
The sitting Chief Minister and BJP contestant from Karnal seat Manohar Lal Khattar has been using every tool at his disposal, from social media to crowded election rallies, to drive his re-election pitch. The main face of BJP’s campaign for the Haryana assembly elections, Khattar, has been touring the entire state to campaign for party candidates. The BJP came to power on its own in Haryana for the first time in 2014. Khattar contested his first election and was also the party’s first chief minister in Haryana. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party’s vote share jumped to more than 58 per cent in the state and it won all 10 parliamentary constituencies.
Narnaund
Narnaund has been witnessing a close battle between the INLD and the BJP over the past many years. The last time the Congress won an election in Narnaund is 1972. In this Assembly election 2019, it is BJP versus JJP in the primarily rural Jat-dominated Assembly segment in Hisar district with state’s Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu making a spirited effort to retain the seat on development plank. JJP has named Ram Kumar Gautam, former BJP leader who was an MLA in 2005 from the Narnaund seat.
Tosham
Senior Congress leader Kiran Choudhry is banking heavily on the legacy of her father-in-law, widely considered as the architect of Haryana and former Chief Minister Bansi Lal, and her performance in the last about 15 years to defy the “saffron surge” to enter the Vidhan Sabha for the fourth time from the Tosham Assembly segment in Bhiwani district. Choudhry, who is pitted against Shashi Ranjan Parmar of the BJP, Kanta Rani of the INLD and Sita Ram of the JJP, is using her “personal connect” with the people to the hilt to capitalise on “anti-incumbency” against the BJP government and neutralise any impact of rampant factionalism in the Congress.
Tohana
The Tohana Assembly seat of Fatehabad district is prestigious for the ruling party BJP, because the state president of the party Subhash Barala is the outgoing MLA from this seat in the Vidhan Sabha. The constituency comprises Tohana and Jakhal towns and as many as 103 villages. Located close to Punjab, several villages of the Assembly segment are Punjabi-speaking and inhabited by Sikh population, though there are other villages on the Hisar road and Narwana road where Jats are in the majority. Interestingly, of the 14 times Tohana Assembly segment has gone to the polls since 1967, Sardar Harpal Singh has won the seat on six occasions while his son Paramvir Singh has represented it twice. Paramvir Singh is contesting this time again on the Congress ticket. While the BJP has fielded Barala again, Devender Babli, after he was denied the Congress ticket, has filed his nomination as a JJP nominee. In the entire history of the Tohana seat, the BJP won from here for the first time in 2014, when Barala defeated Nishan Singh of the INLD.
Badli
Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar is in the fray from Badli. Considered as the citadel of Hooda clan, Jhajjar was the worst affected by arson and violence during the Jat reservation stir in February 2016. Polarisation on caste lines is likely to play a key role, as witnessed in the Lok Sabha poll in May. Dhankar is locked in a triangular contest with Kuldeep Vatsa of the Congress, a Brahmin, and Sanjay Kablana of the JJP, a Jat. Dhankar being a Jat has a slight edge over his rivals as he is likely to get a good chunk of non-Jat votes due to BJP influence. Kablana is receiving a positive response among Jats. Vatsa is getting the support of non-Jat voters while he will get votes of Jats being a Hooda supporter.
Gannaur
The Gannaur Assembly constituency (earlier Kailana segment) in Sonepat district has been a Congress stronghold for the past 20 years. In the last Assembly elections in 2014, Kuldeep Sharma of the Congress had defeated INLD’s Nirmal Rani (now in the BJP) by 7,503 votes. He had also defeated Krishan Gopal Tyagi of the INLD (now in the JJP) in the 2009 Assembly elections by 10,040 votes. The Gannaur segment came into existence in 2009 comprises Gannaur town and 77 villages. During the Jat quota agitation in February 2016, it had witnessed large-scale violence on the National Highway 44. The violence had driven a wedge among communities, leaving voters divided on caste lines.
Jhajjar (reserved)
The Congress had retained Jhajjar (reserved) seat by a comfortable margin of 26,584 votes in the 2014 Assembly elections at a time when it was reduced to just 15 seats in the state after two consecutive stints of Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda as Chief Minister. The winning margin from Jhajjar was the second-highest among the 15 seats that the Congress won in 2014. The reason was the development witnessed in Jhajjar during the Congress regime from 2005 to 2014. Geeta Bhukkal, an academically sound politician having LLB and other degrees, was elected the second time consecutively from Jhajjar in 2014 and broke the jinx that no sitting MLA had won the election. She became MLA the first time from Kalayat (Kaithal) in 2005. Jhajjar was the worst affected by the violence witnessed during the Jat quota stir in February 2016 as 13 people lost their lives in the communal riots and private and public property worth crores was also destroyed. "The BJP has committed gross injustice to my Assembly segment. It not only cancelled several development projects approved by the previous Congress government but also turned a blind eye towards Jhajjar despite the issues being raised several times in the Assembly." Geeta Bhukkal, Congress candidate.
Panchkula city
The Panchkula Assembly segment, which is part of the Ambala Lok Sabha seat, had been a stronghold of the Congress till BJP’s Gian Chand Gupta had wrested the seat in the 2014 Vidhan Sabha elections. He had polled 69,916 votes, defeating INLD’s Kulbhushan Goyal. Having witnessed several classic political battles in the past, the Panchkula Assembly constituency is going to witness a neck-and-neck contest in the Assembly elections. Congress has fielded Chandra Mohan Bhishnoi, former deputy chief minister of the State while BJP is batting on its sitting MLA Gyan Chandra Gupta.
Julana
The rural segment comprising 72 villages is flooded with water woes. Most villages suffer acute shortage of potable water, while some face a double whammy with water logging too. The Julana Assembly constituency in Jind district is located in the centre of the state but it is way off the mark when it comes to availability of basic infrastructure. The rural segment comprising 72 villages is flooded with a host of problems. The residents have been demanding that Julana, a tehsil town, should be upgraded to subdivision for better administration but the demand has remained unfulfilled for decades. The Indian National Lok Dal legislator Parminder Singh Dhull who has represented the constituency for two consecutive terms joined the BJP recently.
Bawal
The BJP government has brought in some development in the segment, giving the party an edge over its rivals but the ongoing stalemate over the setting up of AIIMS in Manethi can turn out to be a significant poll issue. Bawal, a reserved Assembly segment of Rewari district, is located on the state’s border with Rajasthan. In 2014 Assembly elections, the BJP won the Bawal seat for the first time when its candidate Banwari Lal, a loyalist of Union Minister Rao Inderjit, defeated INLD nominee Shyam Sunder by a margin of 37,391 votes. Bawal is an industrial town with more than 250 small and large scale industrial units.
Panipat Urban
Panipat (Urban) Assembly constituency is presently represented by BJP MLA Rohita Rewri who defeated Congress’ Virender Kumar Shah alias ‘Bulle Shah’ by 53,721 votes in the 2014 Assembly poll. Virender is the younger brother of five-time MLA Balbir Pal Shah. Rohita became the first woman MLA from Panipat Urban seat and also broke the stronghold of the Shah family that had won the seat six times. The BJP has done well in the Lok Sabha elections held in May and during the mayoral poll held in December last year due to which the Panipat Urban seat is being considered a safe seat for the BJP.
Sonepat
Kavita Jain has worked on improving town’s roads, civic infrastructure and garbage disposal system, but overflowing sewage, water logging and unfinished projects irk residents. In the past five years of the BJP rule in the state, Cabinet Minister and Sonepat MLA Kavita Jain has tried to change the face of the Sonepat Assembly constituency by augmenting the civic infrastructure, including roads, streets, parks and community centres, apart from ensuring an efficient garbage disposal system. “There is no doubt Kavita Jain’s husband Rajiv Jain remains available to residents. But the sad part is people’s grievances remain unresolved because the BJP rule does not have a grip over the bureaucracy,” says a local businessman.
Radaur
BJP’s Radaur MLA Shyam Singh Rana has become a household name in past five years. Voters expect him to win again and continue the development works The Radaur Assembly segment presents a challenge to the Congress — to make a make a mark in a constituency that it has never won since it came into existence in 1977. Radaur has been an INLD stronghold. The party won the seat thrice on the trot — in 2000, 2005 and 2009. In the last elections, the BJP had wrested the seat from the INLD. How has been its performance? Ask people and they seem satisfied with BJP legislator Shyam Singh Rana’s performance, though there remain a few loose ends.
Gurugram
Gurugram is the only cosmopolitan segment in the state that differs from others in terms of political scenario and voter turnout. In 2014 poll, it recorded a low turnout, especially in urban areas. Gurugram city is an important and much talked about Assembly constituency but there are no signs of pre-election fervour or enthusiasm among voters.