In Israna constituency, BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar faces Congress’ Balbir Balmiki for fourth time

Two days after announcing former minister Krishan Lal Panwar as the BJP candidate from Israna (reserve) constituency, the Congress has also trusted its sitting MLA Balbir Balmiki from here.

Balbir was elected MLA in the 2019 Assembly polls by defeating the BJP’s former Minister Krishan Lal Panwar. Now, once again both will face each other consecutively for the fourth time in the electoral battlefield in the Assembly elections. The Israna (reserve) Assembly constituency came into existence in 2009 after the delimitation. In 2009, both candidates faced each other.

Panwar contested on the INLD ticket in 2009 and registered victory by getting 46.27 per cent vote share, while Balbir Balmiki was on second number by getting 43.97 per cent votes. The margin of Panwar’s win was only of 2,180 votes that time.

In 2014, Panwar joined the Saffron party and won the election again by defeating Balmiki by a close margin of only 1,828 votes. Panwar got a vote share of 32.58 per cent, while Balbir Balmiki got 31.10 per cent vote share in this election.

Both Panwar and Balmiki are again in front of each other in the Assembly polls, 2019. But Balmiki defeated Krishan Lal Panwar by a huge margin of 20,015 votes. Balmiki secured a total vote share of 48.21 per cent and the BJP’s Krishan Lal Panwar got a vote share of 32.49 per cent. The BJP has sent him to the Rajya Sabha after he was defeated from the Israna constituency.

Now, the BJP has again fielded five-time MLA and Rajya Sabha member Krishan Lal Panwar from the seat, while the Congress has also trusted sitting MLA Balbir Balmiki, who is considered to be a loyalist to former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Panwar on Saturday, after offering prayers at a temple, began his campaign and visited six villages – Nohra, Khandra, Bal Jatan, Dharam Garh, Shera and Thirana to woo the voters. “It doesn’t matter who is against whom in the electoral battle, the important thing is to make people aware about the party policies in a better manner,” said Panwar.

“I started my campaign today and visited six villages and people gave me full support and definitely we are going to win and form the government consecutively for the third time in the state,” Panwar claimed. Balmiki organised a procession along with his supporters from the Namunda canal to Gawalra village on Saturday and thanked the party for trusting him again.

“We are going to win again from the seat by double margin compared to the margin in the 2019 polls,” Balbir claimed.

Political experts said candidates had been fielded by the Congress and BJP and others would be fielded in a day or two. But it seemed the contest would be more interesting on this seat and was likely to be between the BJP and Congress directly, they added.