BJP, Cong looking to regain lost ground in Shahabad
After having a fair share in the previous Assembly elections, the BJP and the Congress are looking to regain their lost ground in Shahabad in the upcoming elections.
The constituency has favoured the Congress which won the seat six times since 1967. The BJP won four times while the JJP, Janata Party and the CPM once each.
The seat is being represented by Ramkaran Kala, who has joined the Congress after quitting the JJP and he is expecting the Congress ticket this time. However, a section of the Congress leaders and aspirants have marked their resentment against the Ramkaran Kala’s stake on the party ticket.
In 1967, 1968 and 1972, the seat was won by the Congress, but in 1977, the seat was won by the Janata Party. However, in the election of 1982, the seat was again won by the Congress candidate but lost to the CPM in 1987. In 1991 the BJP candidate won the seat and the party managed to retain the seat in 1996 and 2000. The Congress made a comeback in 2005 and retained the seat in 2009 too, but in 2014 and 2019, the seat was won by the BJP and the JJP candidates, respectively.
The saffron party did not perform well in the previous Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections in the Shahabad segment. In the 2019 Assembly elections, Ramkaran Kala had defeated sitting BJP MLA and Minister of State Krishan Bedi by a margin of over 37,120 votes. While Kala was polled 69,233 votes, Bedi was polled 32,106 votes. It was the biggest margin of win in Kurukshetra in 2019 Assembly elections. Similarly, in the Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Naveen Jindal secured 47,510 votes while INDIA bloc candidate and AAP state chief Sushil Gupta got 59,167 votes.
Shahabad MLA Ramkaran Kala, who is confident that the Congress will field him from Shahabad, said, “We are making all preparations for the Assembly elections. There is no Opposition and I will contest the election on the Congress ticket. We have been raising the issues of unemployment, cleaning of Markanda River, pending development projects and stray cattle. At present, I have been holding meetings as part of the preparations and once the ticket is announced we start the door-to-door campaign and intensify the campaigning. Like the previous election, the people of Shahabad will support me.”
BJP in-charge for the Shahabad Assembly constituency Ravi Battan said, “We are focusing on booth-level committees to strengthen the position of the party in Shahabad. New committees are being formed at the booth level and all efforts are being made to reach out to maximum people and make them aware of the achievements and policies of the BJP government. The party is getting a positive response and we are hopeful to win the Shahabad seat in the election.”