BJP in top gear for Sirsa election campaign, Cong yet to pick pace

In the Sirsa Municipal Council election, the BJP's campaign is in top gear, while the Congress seems to be struggling, with MLA Gokul Setia left to campaign alone.

A week after the Congress announced its candidate, local leaders still haven’t started campaigning for their candidate.

The BJP has engaged ministers, former ministers, MPs, ex-MLAs and even chairpersons in the campaign. They have also appointed election in-charges at both booth and district levels.

Seven candidates are contesting the election for the chairperson's post, with five from major parties and two independent candidates. The BJP’s candidate is Shanti Sawroop Valmiki, Congress has Jaswinder Kaur, JJP has Praveen Turkia, INLD has Omprakash, and AAP has Kavita Nagar. The independent candidates are Rajkumar (Raju) and Ashok Chindalia.

The BJP has roped in many prominent figures for campaigning, including Cabinet Minister Krishna Bedi, former Minister and HLP leader Gopal Kanda, former MP Sunita Duggal, ex-MLAs Dura Ram and formar MLA Makhan Lal Singla, and Haryana Government’s HARCOFED Chairman Ved Phulan. Even former CM’s political adviser Jagdish Chopra and ex-Governor Professor Ganeshi Lal have been actively involved.

The Congress has, however, seen little involvement of its top leaders. Key figures such as Congress MP and National General Secretary Kumari Selja, former MP Ashok Tanwar and several other prominent leaders have kept their distance from the campaign. Even the election in charges and co-in charges have failed to return after initial meetings.

Haryana Cabinet Minister Ranveer Gangwa, who came to campaign for the BJP candidates, said issues like improving city roads, water supply and sewerage systems had been raised, and people have decided that they want a beautiful and developed Sirsa. They trust the BJP for this development. Keeping this in mind, the party has nominated Shanti Swaroop as its candidate who has been a councilor five times and has a vast experience.

The BJP candidates are confident that in this municipal election, the party will win all 32 wards in the city.

Meanwhile, during the campaign in Sirsa, former BJP MP Sunita Duggal said, "Please make BJP win the Chairperson's post. It saddens me that since 2009, you haven't made us a legislator, but at least this time, give us a small government. We deserve some contribution."

Duggal made these remarks while campaigning for BJP’s municipal chairperson candidate Shanti Swaroop Valmiki. He is up against six other candidates in the race.

Since 1996, the BJP has not had a legislator from the Sirsa Assembly seat. In the 2024 elections, the Congress won the seat, and the BJP's candidate also lost the parliamentary election. This has led the BJP to focus heavily on securing the Chairperson's post in the municipal elections. Sunita Duggal’s visit was part of this effort.

Notably, Duggal entered politics in 2014, leaving her job as an Income Tax Commissioner. She contested the 2014 Haryana Assembly elections from Fatehabad’s Ratia seat on the BJP’s ticket, but lost by just 453 votes. In 2019, she was given ticket for the Sirsa Lok Sabha seat and won by over 3 lakh votes. However, in 2024, she lost again in the Ratia Assembly seat by 21,442 votes.