Narwana an INLD bastion, but now open to change

The Narwana Assembly constituency has witnessed a lot of political ups and downs in the past. Former CM OP Chautala has represented the constituency twice (1993 and 2000) while the Surjewala family too has won the seat five times. Indian National Lok Dal supremo OP Chautala and Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala contested thrice (1993 bypoll, 2000 and 2005) from here with Chautala defeating Randeep on two occasions.

The segment was categorised reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates in 2009. The INLD MLA Prithi Singh (now disqualified) has represented the constituency twice in a row since 2009. Local residents complain that the successive governments of the Congress (2009-14) and BJP (2014-19) has ignored them as the local MLA belonged to the Opposition. Bintu Singh, a local resident, said the segment was troubled by a number of issues, including water shortage and poor sewerage, besides the prolonged demand for setting up of a college for women and development of the industrial area in Narwana.

“Apparently, Narwana has been at the receiving end of the politics of netas in the last 10 years. After the exit of the INLD government in 2005, the Congress and the BJP governments haven’t done justice with us,” he said.

The rural areas of the constituency too face shortage of potable water and irrigation facilities. The residents of 11 villages, including Dharodi, Belarkha, Kharal, Frain Kalan, Frain Khurd, Karmgrah, Nahra, Khanpur, Hamergrah, Loan and Kanhakhera, resorted to an agitation over water crisis for 46 days in July-August. Upon Minister Krishan Bedi assurance that water would be supplied from the Barwala branch of the Bhakra canal, the villagers ended their stir.

Prithi Singh recently resigned from the INLD to join the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) of Dushyant Chautala. Prithi alleged that Narwana had suffered the consequences of having a legislator from the Opposition. “The constituency suffers due to poor basic infrastructure like outdated sewerage system and lack of potable water supply. I have been raising the issue of construction of underpass on the national highway as most of the public facilities like mini secretariat, educational institutes and heath facilities are located along the highway,” said Singh. 

Political experts said after remaining an INLD stronghold for three terms, the segment was looking for a change this time, as evident from the fact that the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Sirsa Sunita Duggal took a lead of 51,000 votes in the recent poll.

Probable candidates
BJP: Sanosh Danoda, Suman Bedi 
Congress: Vidya Rani, Prabha Mathur
JJP: Prithi Singh, Balraj Danoda
INLD: Balraj Danoda, Preetam

Total voters 2,06,290
1,11,710 Men
94,580 Women  

Representativespeak 

I have been taking up issues in the Assembly, but the government has hardly taken note of the problems of the segment as I belong to the Opposition. I have complained to Chief Minister ML Khattar about the government neglecting the constituency. People are suffering because of the biased attitude of political leaders. — Prithi Singh, INLD, now with JJP 

Oppositionspeak 

The BJP government has issued a grant of Rs 500 crore for the development of the segment. Though there are issues of sewerage and water supply system, it will be sorted out soon. The government has accepted the demand of 11 villages to ensure water supply from the Barwala branch of the Bhakra canal. — Santosh Danoda, BJP leader