The poll battle between political arch rivals — BJP’s state chief and its nominee Ram Bilas Sharma and Congress candidate Rao Daan Singh, a CPS with State Government is all set to attract the attention of not only Ahirwal but also entire State as both the stalwarts are taking on each other in Mahendragarh Assembly segment for the fifth time.
It is a rare situation in Ahirwal region comprising ten Assembly segments of Mahendragarh, Rewari and western part of Gurgaon districts that the two leaders are challenging each other in five Assembly elections in a row during last 18 years.
Though the greenhorns — INlD candidate Nirmala Tanwar and HJC nominee Naresh Sharma — are in the fray but they will have to toil hard to turn the election into multi-corner battle as their campaign is yet to gain momentum in the constituency. INlD had earlier fielded its sitting MlA from Nangal Chaudhry, Rao Bahadur Singh, from here but his candidature was replaced later.
Being a State president of his party, there is tremendous pressure on Sharma to snap three-election losing streak while Singh is making endeavour to maintain the momentum of his victory in the Assembly polls. Sharma and Singh first time took on each other in the Assembly poll in 1996 when the former romped home victorious by defeating the latter with a thin margin of 3708 votes. Singh had contested the election as an independent candidate. It was Sharma’s fourth victory in a row in the Assembly polls.
But, Sharma lost his all three subsequent Assembly elections to his rival Singh in a row in the years 2000, 2005 and 2009. Singh won his first Assembly polls by a massive lead of 38,850 votes. And, he defeated Sharma by 20,649 and 5,453 votes in next two successive elections.