Political legacies on the line in four-cornered prestige contest in Haryana

The May 12 Lok Sabha election is set to be a make-or-mar poll for many bigwigs belonging to all four political majors — the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and its splinter outfit Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) — in Haryana.

The ruling BJP had won seven of the total 10 Lok Sabha seats in 2014, INLD won three, while Congress won two.

Not only will the BJP be looking to maintain, if not increase, its tally, 2019 will also be a prestige battle for the once- main opposition party, INLD, especially with splinter outfit, JJP, formed by Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala, in the fray.

The Aam Aadmi Party, which has allied with the JJP, will contest three of the seven seats, while JJP will contest all.

BJP has fielded five of seven sitting MPs, two of whom — Rao Inderjit Singh (Gurgaon) and Krishan Pal Gurjar (Faridabad) — are union ministers. While Kurukshetra MP Rajkumar Saini rebelled and will fight the polls in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Karnal MP Ashwini Chopra declined to fight the polls on health grounds.

Instead, Nayab Saini, who is the sitting MLA from Naraingarh, will contest from Kurukshetra, while Sanjay Bhatia, state general secretary, will fight from Karnal, the home turf of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Bhatia has contested two assembly elections unsuccessfully, and has been state president of the BJP Kisan Morcha as well. Saini, on the other hand, has been brought in to appease the Other Backward Castes, especially the Saini community.

Congress two-time chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will contest from home turf Sonepat, while son Deepender Singh Hooda, who is a three-time MP, will contest from Rohtak.

In Sirsa, the Congress state party president and former MP Ashok Tanwar will face first-timer Sunita Duggal, a former Indian Revenue Services officer.

In Hisar, GenNext of political heavyweights will battle it out. Brijendra Singh, son of Union steel minister Birender Singh, from the BJP will face Bhavya Bishnoi, the grandson of former chief minister Bhajan Lal, who is the Congress pick for Hisar. Both the sons of Ajay Chautala, the former MP and eldest son of INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala, will contest as JJP candidates — Dushyant will contest from Hisar and Digvijay from Sonepat.

Ajay Chautala is undergoing 10-year imprisonment along with his father in the Junior Basic Trained teacher recruitment scam, since 2013.

Professor Rajendra Sharma, head, department of political science, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, said, “People are by now clear about the functioning and ideology of Modi and the government at the Centre as well as Haryana. The poll results would show the future of polity the people would have.”