E-Paper
Action replay, but anyone’s game
BJP’s Kanwar Pal, a two-time MLA, is facing his 2019 assembly election opponents in Akram Khan (Congress) and Adarsh Pal Singh (AAP) again this time, but can he overcome anti-incumbency to make a hat-trick from Jagadhri?
Hot seat: Jagadhri
Jagadhri constituency is seeing a sequel of the 2019 assembly election with BJP’s Kanwar Pal,64, locked in a triangular contest with Congress candidate Akram Khan,54, and Adarsh Pal Singh,56, of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
In 2019, Kanwar Pal, the then Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker, defeated Khan, a former deputy speaker of the House, by 16,000 votes. Adarsh Pal Singh, who finished third, had contested on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket last time and joined the AAP ahead of the 2024 assembly elections.
Data shows the vote share of Kanwar Pal, a two-time MLA and state minister, has been on the decline. He had won 44.7% of the votes in the 2014 assembly elections but his vote share fell to 38.88% in 2019. It declined further in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as BJP candidate Banto Kataria lost the Jagadhri segment by more than 14,000 votes.
The town with 2.34 lakh voters from Hindu, Dalit, Muslim, and Sikh communities in Yamunanagar district is also home to the largest brass and steel utensil-making and plyboard industries.
Banking on track record
Campaigning for a third consecutive term, BJP’s Kanwar Pal reminds voters of the development works carried out in the constituency in the past 10 years. He highlights the BJP poll plank of government recruitments “bina parchi-bina kharchi (without corruption)”.
“I’ve solved every issue of Jagadhri. We built a Lakkar Mandi here; Chhachhrauli became a sub division; Pratap Nagar is a block now and educational institutes have been opened here. People are with me. I will ensure a mini secretariat for Jagadhri and begin work on a forest research institute at the earliest. Thirty-five acres have already been sanctioned for it,” says Kanwar Pal, who held the charge of agriculture minister in the Nayab Singh Saini-led cabinet.
He says his government has given minimum support price (MSP) on 24 crops to farmers in the state and there is no resentment among them. “The ongoing protest at Shambhu on the Ambala-Patiala border is political,” he adds.
Sewa Singh, a farmer from Hasanpur village, says growers have been getting a good price for poplar trees under the BJP government, but adds that it could have done more. “He (Kanwar Pal) was a powerful minister. He could have done much more for his constituency. He focused on Jagadhri and neglected Khizrabad and Chhachhrauli. Flooding damages our crops every monsoon,” the farmer says.
Jitesh Aggarwal, who owns a utensil-making unit in Jagadhri, says, “The metal industry is in crisis due to the state government’s apathy. No one is ready to listen to us. Today, many units are on the verge of closure or shifting out. Candidates from every party are promising a facelift, but we are losing hope.”
BJP rival ‘indifferent’
At Lahoriwala, a 15km drive from Pratap Nagar (earlier Khizrabad), a village of about 700 residents awaits the arrival of Congress nominee Akram Khan. Running behind schedule by an hour, he arrives riding a tractor with supporters on motorcycles, holding Congress flags, in tow.
Khan, who was the BSP MLA in 2009, accuses his successor, Kanwar Pal, of being “indifferent to development and focused on mining”.
“Kanwar Pal was also the state education minister. If he wanted, he could have built a university or a college here. He didn’t. Today, posts of teacher are vacant in schools of this town like many others in Haryana,” says Khan.
At a function at Bichpari village, he claims that there is an atmosphere of fear in the state. “If the MSP is there, then why were the farmers beaten up? They (BJP leaders) have always made fake promises. There is way too much illegal mining going on here in violation of National Green Tribunal (NGT) norms, but no one cares. Every monsoon, Jagadhri faces flooding. I’ve been an MLA from this constituency and believe people will repose faith in me this time,” Khan says on the sidelines of a public meeting.
Turncoat to AAP candidate
Eyeing the Congress ticket, Adarsh Pal Singh quit the BSP and became a Bhupinder Singh Hooda loyalist in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in June. However, once the Congress declared Khan, a loyalist of former CM Hooda’s rival Kumari Selja, as its nominee, Adarsh Pal decided to contest as an Independent only to be handed the AAP ticket a few hours later.
Adarsh Pal is the younger brother of former Haryana Police chief KP Singh, who was abruptly removed by then chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in a move apparently aimed at placating Kanwar Pal, who had differences with the IPS officer.
Hoping to emerge as the third force and a kingmaker in the state, the AAP is targeting Dalit and Muslim voters. It is looking to cut into Congress’s vote bank by taking advantage of dissent in the party.
Political analysts say that AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal began his Haryana campaign from Jagadhri with the aim of denting the trader votebank of the BJP. Kejriwal, who also belongs to the Vaish community and joined the campaign after resigning as Delhi chief minister, targeted BJP’s Kanwar Pal for “ruining the education system” and metal industry in the constituency.
Taking the issue further at his street corner meetings, AAP candidate Adarsh Pal highlights how the state authorities are “hell bent to close down” metal and plywood units in the town and youngsters are struggling without jobs.
“The pollution control department has issued closure notice to 40 industrial units. They are being harassed and corruption of lakhs of rupees is involved. The situation is similar for plywood factories. We will work to improve their plight and move the units out of the city,” he says.
The AAP leader addressed 27 back-to-back meetings, urging voters to give the AAP a chance, promising “wonders” that the Aam Aadmi Party has done in Delhi and Punjab.
Addressing voters of Arjun Majra village in Chhachhrauli, he cited the rise in crime, including the rape and murders of two girls in Jagadhri sub division within a week. “The accused in both the cases were neighbours, but they were drug addicts. Drugs are easily available and jobless youngsters fall prey. They are selling jewellery of their mothers to buy drugs. This has to change,” he says.
