All eyes on Congress candidate from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh

Tribune News Service

Sunit Dhawan

Rohtak, April 16

The electoral battle for the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat is set to be an interesting one, with the incumbent BJP MP Dharambir Singh eyeing a hat-trick win and the Congress trying hard to halt his victory march.

Ahir community major vote bank

Rao Bahadur Singh has a strong hold on the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh parliamentary constituency. His major vote bank lies in the Ahir (Yadav) community, to which Rao Dan Singh also belongs. — Senior Cong leader

As of now, political analysts are awaiting the announcement of the Congress candidate from the constituency.

Sources in the Congress said late Chief Minister Bansi Lal’s granddaughter Shruti Choudhry and sitting Mahendragarh MLA Rao Dan Singh are the top contenders for the party ticket.

While Shruti’s mother Kiran Choudhry is a member of the Selja-Randeep-Kiran (SRK) group of the Haryana Congress, Rao Dan Singh is backed by the camp of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

As per party sources, Rao Dan Singh is also interested in contesting from the Gurugram constituency, for which the names of actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar and former Haryana minister Capt Ajay Yadav are also being considered.

“If Dan Singh does not get the ticket from Gurugram, he (and his backers) will try to get him fielded from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh,” say the sources.

However, the entry of JJP candidate Rao Bahadur Singh in the poll fray is likely to change the poll equation as well as consideration of the Congress leadership.

“Rao Bahadur Singh has a strong hold in the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh parliamentary constituency, from where he had contested as an INLD candidate in 2014 and got more than 2.75 lakh votes. His major vote bank lies in the Ahir (Yadav) community, to which Rao Dan Singh also belongs. The Jat voters may seem to oppose the BJP, but they may tilt towards BJP’’s Dharambir if there is no other Jat candidate in the fray,” points out a senior Congress leader.

Nonetheless, political observers also note that the hostility being faced by the JJP leaders may also be an indication of the party’’s slipping base.

On the other hand, the supporters of Rao Dan Singh maintain that he would get support from the Ahir community as well as Jats who are less likely to vote for the BJP following the farmers’’ stir and subsequent developments.

The Congress is also expected to get support owing to the anti-incumbency factor playing against the ruling BJP, but the picture would be clearer after the Congress declares its candidate.

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