All set to break the dominance of the longstanding Shah clan, the BJP’s Rohita Revri is emerging as the new popular face in the legislative Assembly constituency of Panipat City.
Congress MlA Balbir Pal Shah, over two decades of continuous rule in the constituency, left locals highly disgruntled with his non-performance. This loss of faith in Shah combined with the subsequent Modi wave has in turn given Revri a considerably clear march ahead. However, this year with Balbir Shah’s brother Virender ‘Bulle’ Shah getting the ticket from the constituency, the voters who had rooted for the Congress are now disillusioned as to who to vote for. While the political pundits in the area say that the support towards Bulle Shah is more out of respect and is superficial in terms of actual voting, the chances of BJP getting a clear walkthrough are piebald.
The atmosphere is nonetheless a mixed one. It is a battle of sorts where on one hand, Revri’s enjoying the advantage of the Modi wave, the anti-Shah brand and her candidature, while on the other, Bulle Shah is busy drawing voters based on his familiarity and egalitarian attitude. According to the urban local crowd, even if they don’t support Congress they are most likely to give their vote to Bulle Shah because of his warm personality and his natural acquaintance with most locals. This also goes to show how the candidate is playing a more important role in the constituency rather than the party.
Kawaljeet Singh, a shop owner, said, “I have no faith in the Congress party and would never vote for them, but in the Vidhan Sabha election I will give my vote to Bulle Shah even though he is from the Congress. He’s the only person we have seen so far who has a good bonding with the locals and regularly comes and meets everyone. As a candidate, many people will choose him only because he listens to our grievances.” However, on the other hand, staunch Congress supporters in the city are themselves saying that the chances of Revri winning are high.
There are different voices too to counter Bulle Shah’s candidature. “We know that Revri is most likely going to win this time because there is a clear anti-incumbency wave for the Shah clan. We have always voted for the Congress and still will, but in spite of our votes going to them, we can clearly see that the Shah clan has lost its longstanding glory,” said Prem Kumar, a teaboy.
The city, which has almost two-and-a-half lakh people on the electoral roll, has a lot of issues in terms of sanitation, infrastructure and water supply. But one that stands out the most, according to businessman Gopal Ahuja, is the never-ending traffic problem in the city. Since the city is bang on the main GT Road, the sluggish bylanes are always chock-a-block. This means that residents usually have to take long intercity routes to get to a certain point within the city. “Children always end up taking the highway to go to school, which is not more than two-three kilometres away because roads are blocked,” said Ahuja, who feels that this issue will gravitate a lot of people towards voting for BJP since the Government has sat on its haunches for two decades.
locals also complain that in the past 20 years, there has been no maintenance work done by Congress in the city. Ramesh Arora, a retired bank manager living in Model Town, said they have been fixing street lights on their own and even disposing garbage from trash cans because the Government has not taken the initiative to do anything. “When we pay house tax, why should we be doing all these thingsIJ The Government doesn’t use the house tax to actually maintain things. We have to hire privately and get things of public importance repaired. Roads are always broken. Moreover, there is always scarcity of water in the city,” said Arora.
Meanwhile, Shah’s associates have been blustering about the development they have done in all these years. MR Gureja, PA to Virender Shah, said that the party was to a large extent relying on its past achievements to win this election. However, Gureja also admitted that most voters are with them for Bulle Shah and not the Congress. “There are more supporters for the candidate but there are Congress supporters as well,” said Gureja.
BJP workers were more than pleased with the response they were getting. Model Town Block President for BJP Pritpal Singh said that 90 per cent of the youth in Panipat was supporting them and while it is the Modi factor playing along, Revri has also got quite a fan following. “We are very confident that BJP will win in Panipat because people are fed up of trusting the Shahs. In Rohita Revri they have newfound hope, which is a manifestation of her victory,” said Singh.