Eight Kuldeeps and a battle of two political dynasties have set the stage for an interesting electoral contest in the Hisar parliamentary seat.
Stakes are high for sitting MP Kuldeep Bishnoi, projected as the leader of the Haryana Janhit Congress-BJP combine, as a loss here may have a bearing on him and his party HJC's future.
Hisar, where the highest number of 41 candidates are in the fray out of the 10 seats in Haryana, will see 45-year-old Bishnoi take on seven namesakes who share his first name. Six of these candidates are Independents.
This seat has also become a prestige issue for the two prominent political families of the state -- the famous 'Lals' -- as scions of Bhajan Lal and Devi Lal are up against each other.
Bishnoi, the younger son of late Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, is pitted against a fourth generation member of the Devi Lal family, Dushyant Chautala (Indian National Lok Dal), besides Congress' Sampat Singh, MLA from Nalwa segment, and AAP's Yudhbir Singh Khyalia, the bureaucrat-turned-politician.
Phool Singh Sheokand (CPM) and Mange Ram Verma (BSP) are also in the fray.
Criss-crossing his constituency in a hectic campaign schedule, Bishnoi tries to woo voters in the name of his father's legacy and the work he has done as MP and asks them to strengthen the hands of the NDA to enable Narendra Modi become the country's next prime minister.
A few months before Lok Sabha polls were announced, Bishnoi had undertaken a two-month long Vijay Abhiyaan Rath Yatra covering all 90 Assembly segments in the state.
"In whatever short time I got (from 2011), I have tried to raise the voice of my people inside as well as outside Parliament. I have been speaking against the regional bias in development which is limited just to the Rohtak region while other parts of the state have been overlooked by the Hooda government," Bishnoi told PTI.
He says his USP is clean record and commitment towards serving the people and carrying forward the dreams of his late father.
