Having witnessed several classic political battles in the past, the Panchkula Assembly constituency will witness a neck-and-neck contest this time in the Assembly elections.
Congress has fielded former deputy chief minister of the State Chandra Mohan Bishnoi from Panchkula city while Bharatiya Janata Party is batting on its sitting MLA Gyan Chand Gupta. The reputation of the both the parties will be at stake and hence every vote polled will matter.
Panchkula constituency is one of the two constituencies of Panchkula district and though it is the smallest district in the State, it is said to be the “mini-capital” of the state as several administrative offices are located in the city. It forms a part of a continuous area with the Union Territory of Chandigarh and the city of Mohali.
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 wrested the seat in the 2014 Vidhan Sabha elections. He had polled 69,916 votes, defeating Indian National Lok Dal (NLD’s) Kulbhushan Goyal.
Gyan Chand, a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), had lost to Devender Kumar Bansal of the Congress in 2009, when the grand old party had formed the state government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
This time, the constituency has got 2.8 lakh electorates and 21 candidates have been filed for the Assembly elections. Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has fielded its candidate Karundeep Chaudhary while candidate Yogeshwar Sharma by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). JJP has fielded its candidate Ajay Gautam while Madhu Anand by Swaraj India.
Bishnoi, the elder son of former Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhajan Lal, has been elected as member of legislative assembly for continuously four times from Kalka Constituency. However, Gyam Chand is confident of being elected again on the back of development works done in the past five years. He claims the BJP government started development works worth Rs 2,000 crore in the constituency. “Ever since the formation of Haryana, these works had been pending,” he claimed. One of the projects that he boasts of is the four-laning of the Panchkula-Yamunanagar highway.
Bishnoi said BJP was taking credit of Yamuna Nagar-Panchkula national high way, but this was approved by Congress leader Kumari Selja when party was in power at the centre. The BJP in last five years have miserably failed to complete the project, he added.
In the war of words ahead of the Assembly polls, the Congress’ Panchkula candidate said that BJP MLA had failed to develop Panchkula, and also added that it only during Congress rule that the city witnessed any development.
He said, “Gyan Chand has been completely unsuccessful in developing Panchkula. The BJP has been fooling people by laying the foundation stones of projects right before the elections. After becoming an MLA, my priority will be to get the garbage processing plant, being set up at Jheuriwal village, shifted to Bhanu village located on the Haryana-Punjab border.”
Dr Anand Kumar, Associated Professor, Institute of Integrated and Honours Studies, Kurukshetra University said, “At a time when Congress is striving to regain its lost ground in the State, former deputy CM Chandra Mohan is also facing a 'now or never' like situation. With the Congress announcing name of its nominee for Panchkula, the fight has become a tough one for BJP candidates. BJP candidate seems to be feeling a little nervous after finding Bishnoi as his competitor. The reputation of both Congress and BJP will be at stake and hence every vote polled will matter.”
He said, “If the past two Assembly elections are any indicator, voters of the Panchkula segment go with the tide. It elects a legislator from the party that goes on to form the government. Will it be the case this elections as well? Only time will tell.”
Chandra Mohan had made his debut in politics in 1993 when he fought a by-election from Kalka assembly constituency. The seat had got vacated following the death of Purush Bhan. Then CM Bhajan Lal fielded his elder son Chandra Mohan. He was last elected from Kalka in 2005 assembly elections. In 2009, he was denied a ticket and Devender Bansal was elected from Panchkula. But Bansal lost the seat to Gyan Chand Gupta in 2014.
This time, Chandra Mohan is mainly banking on the contribution of his family as well as his late father and former CM Bhajan Lal for the growth of Panchkula that happened almost two decades back. On the other hand, Gupta is banking on the projects incepted over a period of the past five years.