Haryana Election Results: JJP's Dushyant Chautala trails against Congress' Brijendra Singh in Uchana Kalan
JJP chief Dushyant Chautala is trailing behind Congress's Brijendra Singh in Uchana Kalan. Brijendra Singh quit BJP in 2014 and switched to Congress.
Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) chief Dushyant Chautala is seeking re-election from Uchana Kalan, but is facing a tough challenge from former Union minister Birender Singh's son Brijendra Singh, a Congress leader. According to early trend, the JJP leader is trailing behind Brijendra Singh. (Also read: Haryana election results 2024 today: Will BJP celebrate a third term or Congress stage a comeback?)
Battle for Uchana Kalan
Chautala won the seat in 2019, defeating Brijendra's mother Prem Lata Singh by over 47,000 votes. Prem Lata, who was then with the BJP, had defeated Chautala in 2014.
The JJP leader, who is contesting the Haryana assembly elections in an alliance with Azad Samaj Party, believes that no party will emerge as a clear winner this time. But he is confident that their alliance will win enough seats to emerge as a key player after a hung assembly result.
The JJP had won 10 of the 90 assembly seats in the 2019 Haryana assembly polls, the BJP 40 and the Congress 31. Emerging as a 'kingmaker', it entered into a post-poll tie-up with BJP, which had fallen short of majority.
The JJP was part of the coalition government led by former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar from October 2019 to March 2024.
Dushyant Chautala, 36, the great grandson of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, predicts that no single party will be able to cross the 40-seat mark in the assembly elections.
Former MP Ajay Singh Chautala-led JJP and Chandra Shekhar Azad-led Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) had recently announced their alliance for the Haryana polls. While the JJP is fighting on 69 seats, the ASP has fielded 16 candidates.
Brijendra Singh's political journey
His rival Brijendra Singh quit the BJP just before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and switched to the Congress.
A career bureaucrat, Brijendra, quit the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 2019 to join the BJP and was fielded from the Hisar Lok Sabha seat. He won the seat, defeating Dushyant (JJP) by 3.14 lakh votes.
Brijendra is running a door-to-door campaign by meeting voters in Jheel village and says unemployment is the first and foremost issue to be addressed.
"The trend of youngsters disposing of land holdings to migrate abroad, legally or illegally to find work is unprecedented,” the Congress candidate says.
Uchana Kalan Assembly constituency is one of the 90 Vidhan Sabha constituencies of Haryana, which voted on October 5. Located in the Jind district, Uchana Kalan's seat is a part of the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency. In the 2019 assembly polls, Dushyant Chautala, former Haryana Deputy Chief Minister and leader of Jannayak Janta Party won the seat
As per the 2001 census, Uchana Kalan had a population of 14,100, which constitutes 54% males and 46% females. The literacy rate in Uchana Kalan is relatively high at 78%, with male literacy at 82% and female literacy at 74%.
The Uchana Kalan assembly constituency is a general seat and not reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward castes (OBCs).