Electoral fight gets tougher in Faridabad

Bijendra Ahlawat

Faridabad, May 13

BJP candidate Krishan Pal Gurjar, seeking mandate for a hat trick, is locked in a tough fight with Congress candidate Mahender Pratap Singh as campaigning intensifies in the Faridabad constituency. While the battle has emerged as a direct contest between the two, victory will be no cakewalk.

Though the BJP candidate, who was MP for the past two consecutive terms, had launched his campaign way ahead of his main rival. “The delayed start of campaign will not prove much of a hurdle. The seat is headed for a close finish,” claim political observers.

“Fielding of Mahender Pratap Singh, a veteran leader by the Congress, has given sleepless nights to his rivals,’’ says Devinder Singh, a political analyst.

With anti-incumbency a major issue for many, it is the non-Gurjar voters, like Jats, Muslims, SC, BC and Punjabi communities, whose support is seen as a deciding factor. This is mainly due to the fact that both candidates (BJP and Congress ) belong to the Gurjar community and this vote bank stands to be divided. Though the candidates of these parties had also been Gurjar in the past two elections, the victory of the BJP in 2014 and 2019 is attributed mainly to the Modi factor. “Since there is no such factor, issues like corruption, development and the image of candidates, are likely to decide the outcomes,” says Paras Bhardwaj, a resident. He said incumbency had also made the contest interesting as residents want a candidate who could assure corruption-free development of the region.