The gruelling campaign for Lok Sabha election in Haryana, going to the polls in the sixth phase on May 12, ended on Friday with simultaneous rallies by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the Jat belt.
Election in the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the State is being fought under the shadow of large-scale violence during the Jat agitation in 2016, conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh two years ago and the recent split in the Indian National Lok Dal, with political analysts claiming an undercurrent in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As per the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana, 223 candidates, including 11 women, are in the fray, with the maximum 29 contestants trying their luck in the Sonipat Lok Sabha constituency and the lowest, 16 in Karnal.
A total of 1,80,56,896 voters, including 83,40,173 women, are registered to exercise their franchise. Around 67,000 police personnel have been mobilised for the election duty.
‘Battle of prestige’
The Congress and the BJP are locked in a direct contest on nine of 10 Lok Sabha seats in the State. In Hisar, Jannayak Janta Party leader Dushyant Chautala has made the fight three-cornered with Congress’ Bhavya Bishnoi and BJP’s Brijendra Singh being the other two heavyweight contestants in the fray. It is a battle of prestige for all the three candidates with political legacies to defend.
The JJP has been contesting the election in an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party, which has fielded its candidates on three seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party, which had snapped its ties with the INLD post the split, has been contesting the election in a tie-up with Loktanter Suraksha Party of former BJP MP from Kurukshetra, Raj Kumar Saini.
Jat-dominated seats
A thrilling electoral battle is on the cards in the other two Jat-dominated constituencies too — Sonipat and Rohtak — with the BJP’s two non-Jat candidates pitted against the Congress’ Bhupinder Hooda and his son Deepender Singh Hooda.
While the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to wrest the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat, a bastion of the Hoodas and the only seat won by the Congress in the State in 2014, Mr. Deepender Hooda is set for a tough battle with the Jat reservation agitation likely to cause polarisation of votes along caste lines.
The Sonipat Lok Sabha election could well decide the political future of Mr. Bhupinder Hooda, who is seen as the tallest Jat leader in the State.
Mr. Modi, during his three rallies in the State in Fatehabad, Kurukshetra and Rohtak, has mostly raised the issues of national security and corruption, besides accusing the Congress of personal attacks on him. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on the other hand, has mostly talked about the party’s promise of NYAY (minimum income scheme) and separate budget for farmers, and attacked the BJP government on loss of jobs and business due to demonetisation and the flawed implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. He too has addressed three rallies at Gurugram, Bhiwani and Sirsa.