Gurugram Lok Sabha seat is witnessing an intense battle between Rao Inderjit Singh of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who is also a Minister in the Narendra Modi Government and the Congress candidate Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, a former Haryana Minister. Apart from Rao Inderjit Singh and Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, Virendra Rana (INLD), Mehmood Khan (JJP-AAP), Rais Ahmad (BSP-LSP) and Pawan Kumar (Shiv Sena) are also in the contest.
Sitting MP Rao Inderjit Singh, the sitting MP and his main rival Ajay Singh Yadav, both are from Rewari and belong to the same case.
This may lead to a division of votes in the Parliamentary constituency, political watchers say.
Besides Capt Yadav, Inderjit Singh’s elder brother Rao Ajit Singh is an Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supporter while the younger one Yajuvendra Singh is a former Congress MLA from Kosli assembly seat. Their father Rao Birendra Singh had served as the Chief Minister of Haryana. He was part of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narsimha Rao Governments at the Centre and handled many key Ministries.
“Two brothers are in the Opposition camps and that has queered the pitch for Rao Inderjit’s victory this time. Also, lots of development projects promised by the BJP in Gurugram, Rewari and Nuh are yet to be completed. Congress has mounted an all out attack on the sitting MP for not doing enough for the constituency as major developmental projects could see the light of the day.
Rao Inderjit Singh will have also to deal with the agitated voters of 72 villages in Manesar area of Gurugram, who have threatened to boycott the elections. Their grouse is that the Minister did precious little for them and failed to address their core issues.
Residents of Bolni village, adopted by Rao Inderjeet Singh under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s PM’s flagship scheme, do not hide their resentment when asked about developmental work in their village. Despite being adopted some four years ago, the villagers lack basic amenities like piped drinking water and sewage lines.
His main rival Capt Ajay Singh of Congress is not leaving any chance to attack the BJP candidate . His poll managers are touring affected village and convincing them to address their core issue .
“We have said as earlier that once the Congress comes in power all the pending projects will be completed on time and new projects in Gurugram, Nuh and Rewari will be developed which will benefit lakhs of people in the State,” said Congress’ Gurugram district unit in-charge Ashok Bhaskar.
“Gurugram district has a mix of rural and urban voters. There is clear among the urban and rural voters as the latter think that leaders only work for the urban populace. Also, the presence of migrant voters in city’s urban and industrial villages may also turn the tables and Congress is alert to that, said a political activist who had seen many elections.
The Gurugram constituency comprises of Gurugram, Rewari and Nuh districts and have 10.8 lakh, 64,62,39 and 53,109 voters, respectively.
After Sukhvinder, an independent candidate, withdrew his nomination from the Gurugram Parliamentary constituency, 24 candidates are left in the fray for the polls to be held on May 12. Out of the 24 candidates, seven are independent candidates while 17 candidates from different parties are trying their luck. Of the 34 candidates who filed their nominations, the candidature of seven were rejected on Wednesday during the scrutiny due to different reasons. Two candidates had withdrawn their names on the same day.