Polarisation of votes helped Chaudhary win Kalka seat

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, October 25

Polarisation of Jat votes, especially of the Gurjar community, helped the Congress candidate, Pardeep Chaudhary, wrest the Kalka Assembly seat from the sitting BJP MLA, Latika Sharma.

In Pinjore and Kalka towns, majority of voters are from Brahmin, Aggarwal and Punjabi community while rural areas of the Assembly segment are inhabited by Jat community, especially Gurjars. Most Gurjar community lives in the Raipur Rani belt and some villages of the Morni area.

The decline in voting percentage from 72.70 per cent to 67.10 per cent is also one of the main reasons for the defeat of the BJP candidate.

The opposition leaders managed to convince voters that Latika failed to bring any mega project to the area, which could have generated employment. The public sector company – Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) – was closed during her five-year stint as an MLA, which rendered hundreds of employees jobless.

Rakesh Sharma, a resident of Pinjore, said, “We were surprised at the outcome of the election results as we were expecting Latika Sharma to hold the seat due to development works carried out by her.”

Kalka was facing shortage of potable water when Latika became an MLA in 2014, but after that, she managed to carry out development works worth Rs 800 crore, including provision of safe drinking water, street lighting and street roads, he added.

Mahender Kumar of Kalka said Latika was leading in Pinjore and Kalka areas by a margin of over 4,000 votes till the 11th round, but after votes of the rural areas were counted Congress candidate Pardeep Chaudhary started taking a lead and finally won the seat by more than 5,900 votes.

Chaudhary was able to retain votes of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) despite the fact that he shifted to the Congress on September 19 and his candidature was announced on October 2, he added.

His workers in the INLD while showing loyalty to their leader had extensively campaigned for Chaudhary and managed to transfer votes in his favour, he said.