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| Infighting and polls: Congress fights twin battle in Haryana |
| Komal Amit Gera / Chandigarh Apr 10, 2009, 01:25 IST |
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The Congress party is fighting two sets of elections in Haryana: one for the Lok Sabha, and the other internally, among various factions vying to get the upper hand via the coming general elections.
Though Haryana is a small state with just ten Lok Sabha seats, the infighting in the ruling party is acute because it had performed very well in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, winning 9 seats out of the 10. To prove that the victory in 2004 was not just a flash in the pan, the Congress continued its winning march in the Assembly elections in 2005 — bagging 67 out of 90 Assembly seats.
The principal Opposition is the Om Prakash Chautala-led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which after experimenting with the so-called Third Front, tied up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and will contest five seats each.
While for the INLD, the coming election is a fight for political survival, for the Congress, it is a story of political inchoateness. The last day for filing nominations is April 11 and the elections are scheduled to be held on May 7. But while the INLD-BJP combine has announced its candidates, the Congress nominees for the Sonepat and Bhiwani-Mahendergarh constituency candidates are yet to be declared. Factionalism in the party has prevented the high command from announcing the names.
State Finance Minister Birender Singh is keen to contest from Sonepat, which the Congress had lost in the last elections.
Similarly, state Tourism Minister Kiran Choudhary is trying her best to field her daughter Shruti Chaudhary from the Bhiwani constituency. The sitting MP from Bhiwani, Kuldip Bishnoi, who criticised Chief Minister BS Hooda for his land acquisition policies, was thrown out of the Congress party. Following this, Bishnoi had floated his own outfit, the Haryana Janhit Party, and is trying his luck for the first time.
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| 2004 LOK SABHA RESULTS |
| Total seats |
10 |
| Congress |
9 |
| BJP |
1 |
| Vote share of major parties in 2004 |
| Congress |
42.13% |
| INLD |
22.43% |
| BJP |
17.21% |
Also in the fray are Deepinder Hooda, sitting Congress MP from Rohtak and the son of the chief minister, will contest the seat he is holding currently. Similarly, Kumari Selja, Union minister of poverty alleviation and urban development, has been renominated from Ambala (reserved constituency) although she was not Hooda’s choice.
Arvind Sharma, the sitting Congress MP from Karnal who became the cynosure of everybody’s eyes a few months ago for the praises he showered on Bahujan Samawadi Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, has been nominated again.
Union Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh Gill, a sitting MP from Mahendergarh, will contest from Gurgaon. He opted to shift to Gurgaon, the newly created constituency after delimitation.
Sitting MP from Kurukshetra, Naveen Jindal (one of the promoters of Jindal Group of Industries), has been renominated from his old costituency.
All India Youth Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, who is believed to be close to Rahul Gandhi, will contest for the first time from Sirsa, a reserved constituency.
Jai Prakash, the sitting Congress MP from Hissar, will also contest from his old constituency. Avtar Singh Bhadana will contest from Faridabad.
The BSP is contesting all the 10 seats on its own.This party stands out because in the 2004 elections, it got almost 5 per cent of the popular vote.
In the absence of a political wave, issues like power and water for irrigation are the debating points. Essentially in Haryana, it is referendum on the performance of the state government, masquerading as a national election.
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