No clear trend, Rai Assembly segment a puzzle for parties

Tribune News Service

Sonepat, August 30

The Rai constituency on the NH-44, providing entry from Delhi to Chandigarh, is a challenge to the BJP and the Congress this Assembly election.

Lobbying on in Delhi

• The political parties have yet to field their players in the electoral battlefield, but aspirants, especially of prominent political parties, the BJP and the Congress, are lobbying in Delhi with senior leaders to get the party symbols.
• Thirtyeight leaders of the Congress, including former MLA Jai Tirath Dahiya, have applied to get the party ticket and 12 aspirants have applied for the party ticket in the BJP

The BJP’s state president Mohan Lal Badoli is the sitting MLA from Rai.

The seat is a vital one as the BJP president not only wants to retain it but also has the responsibility to bring the party to power for the third time in the state. Meanwhile, the Congress is also eager to wrest the seat from the BJP in this election.

The Rai constituency is known for interesting battles in the Deswali belt of the state. The constituency went with the Congress five times.

Rizaq Ram Dahiya won twice from the seat in 1972 and 1977, while his son Jai Tirath Dahiya also won twice from here on the Congress ticket in 2005 and 2009.

The BJP won the Assembly elections for the first time in 2019 and Mohan Lal Badoli defeated Congress candidate Jai Teerath Dahiya in a close contest by 2,662 votes.

In the recently held Lok Sabha elections, the voter turnout in Rai was minimal and the BJP candidate Mohan Lal Badoli led by only 2,081 votes by his rival Satpal Brahamchair of the Congress.

Not only this, Jai Tirath Dahiya also won the election by only three votes in the 2014 Assembly polls by defeating INLD candidate Inderjeet Singh.

However, the INLD candidate filed a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court to challenge Dahiya’s win and the High Court declared his election void in September 2019. Dahiya had resigned from the Assembly on August 1, 2019.

Meanwhile, the political parties have yet to field their players in the electoral battlefield but aspirants, especially of prominent political parties, the BJP and the Congress, are lobbying in Delhi with senior leaders to get the party symbols.

As many as 38 leaders of the Congress, including former MLA Jai Tirath Dahiya, applied to get the party ticket and a total of 12 aspirants have applied for the party ticket in the BJP.

Although tickets would be declared in the next two-three days, the BJP and Congress leaders are spending their maximum time in Delhi to approach their senior party leaders to get confirmation about their ticket, said a political expert.

Everyone, either the ticket seeker or common voter, is eagerly waiting for the announcement of the ticket, said political experts.

As this seat has a history of close contests, it would be tough to guess the winning party in Rai. But, a nail-biting finish seeems to be on cards, opine political pundits.