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22 candidates in fray for Adampur bypoll
The Adampur bypoll was necessitated after BJP nominee Bhavya Bishnoi’s father Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned as an MLA from the seat and quit the Congress to join BJP
: A total of 22 candidates will contest the November 3 Adampur bypoll and election symbols have been allotted to these nominees, an election official announced on Monday, the last day for withdrawal of nominations.
Returning officer (RO) Subhash Chander said Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) covering candidate Bhupender Beniwal withdrew his nomination.
“As many as 180 voting centres have been formed for the Adampur bypoll. Counting of votes will take place on November 6,” Chander said.
The by-election was necessitated after BJP nominee Bhavya Bishnoi’s father Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned as an MLA from the seat and quit the Congress to join BJP. Bishnoi had defeated BJP’s Sonali Phogat by about 29,000 votes in the 2019 assembly elections.
The constituency has about 1.7 lakh voters, including 79,000 women.
Prominent faces
The BJP has pitted 29-year-old Bhavya, who is the grandson of former Haryana chief minister and late Congress leader Bhajan Lal. Bhavya had unsuccessfully contested as the Congress nominee from Hisar parliamentary seat in the 2019 elections. He completed M.Sc from St Antony College, University of Oxford, in 2015-16. Adampur is the home turf of Bhajan Lal’s family and it has retained this assembly seat for the last 55 years.
In 2011, Bhavya’s mother Renuka Bishnoi had contested the by-election from Adampur after Bishnoi resigned as MLA and fought the Hisar parliamentary elections. She had won with a thumping majority.
The Congress party has fielded former union minister and three-time former MP from Hisar Jai Parkash. He is considered to be loyal to former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. A native of Dubbal village in Kaithal, Parkash has won the Hisar Lok Sabha seat thrice – 2004, 1996, and 1989 – each time for a different party.
The AAP has given the ticket to BJP turncoat Satinder Singh. On September 7, Singh quit the BJP and joined AAP. He was district incharge of Bharatiya Kisan Morcha, BJP’s farmer unit in Sirsa and Rohtak.
He had joined the BJP in the 2019 assembly polls after Congress denied him a ticket. In 2014, he contested from Adampur constituency as a Congress candidate and lost to Kuldeep Bishnoi.
The INLD has fielded farmer leader Kurda Ram. He jumped ship from Congress when the party denied him a ticket for the Adampur bypoll and joined INLD. Ram hails from Adampur’s largest village Balsamand. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2000 assembly elections from the constituency on the ticket of Bansi Lal’s Haryana Vikas party. ENDS
