‘Mother of all battles’ at Uchana

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Uchana Kalan, October 14

A group of five-six persons seated on chairs outside a house in Gheso Khurd village of Uchana Kalan Assembly segment in Jind are engaged in an animated discussion on the upcoming polls. The Tribune asks them as to who would be the winner. The response is fiercely divided.

In Uchana Kalan, the land of ‘Bangar’, Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) convener Dushyant Chautala is pitted against Rajya Sabha member Birender Singh’s wife Prem Lata of the BJP. It is believed the seat will witness the “mother of all electoral battles” with other candidates, including those of the Congress and the INLD, rendered inconsequential. The constituency has been the stronghold of Sir Chhotu Ram’s grandson Birender Singh, who won this seat five times on the Congress ticket since 1977 when he entered electoral politics as a youth leader. His wife Prem Lata won the seat in 2014 as BJP nominee. But in 2009, former CM Om Prakash Chautala trounced Birender Singh by a little over 600 votes.

Pitted against Prem Lata in 2014, Dushyant was defeated by a margin of over 7,000 votes. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls contested by Dushyant from Hisar, Uchana Kalan gave him a huge lead of 50,000 votes against Kuldeep Bishnoi of the BJP-HJC, while in 2019 Birender Singh’s son managed a lead of over 8,000 votes.

“Dushyant will surely win this time. He is very popular, particularly among the youth and women. He is young and has a lot of fresh ideas for generating employment,” say youngsters in Karsindhu village. “We always backed the Chautalas. But the expulsion of Dushyant and his brother Digvijay from the INLD has hurt us. The people will now stand by them,” says an elderly woman at Gheso Khurd village. Raj Pal and Ramesh Jangra from the same village, however, differ. “Dushyant is popular only among Jat youth and women.

The OBCs, Dalits, Brahmins, Punjabis and Agarwals will largely vote for the BJP,” they say. “In a tactical move, Dushyant has fielded Ram Kumar Gautam, a Brahmin, from neighbouring Narnaund against Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu in order to woo voters of the community in Uchana Kalan. But Randhir Dheera, also a Brahmin, is likely to upset Dushyant’s calculations,” claims Jangra.

Kuldeep with the Haryana Beej Nigam at Ghogrian says people are happy with the Modi government at the Centre and the Khattar government in Haryana, “but not all are happy with the local MLA.” Vijay Kumar, a medical store owner at Uchana Kalan, elaborates, “Procurement of crops was never a problem in Haryana as it has been during the present BJP government. Online procurement has made things only complicated. I had to transport mustard crop to the mandi four times before it was procured. Each time officials would reject the crop on the pretext of high moisture content.”

At Birender Singh’s Doomarkhan village, voters appear firmly with Prem Lata. “Birender Singh is a big leader. His wife is sure to win,” says Hari Ram, smoking hookah at his store on the Narwana–Jind road.

While Dushyant seems on a strong footing in Khatkar, Karsindhu, Ghogrian, Chhatar, Thuan, Baroda and Makrand villages, Prem Lata has the edge in Doomerkhan, Kharak, Jheel and Pulwan besides Uchana Kalan. Dushyant claims people are eager to dislodge the Khattar government but Prem Lata’s nephew Sanjeev is certain the BJP will win by an even bigger margin this time.

Throwing his weight behind Prem Lata, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday addressed a rally at Uchana Kalan. He accused Dushyant of spreading lies on data on jobs.