In Una, 3 new Congress faces, BJP banks on old ones

Rajesh Sharma

Una, October 22

In the five Assembly segments in Una district, the Congress has given three new faces, retaining the two, who had won the last Assembly elections, while the BJP has reposed confidence in all five old faces who had contested the previous elections.

Barring the reserved constituency of Chintpurni, Rajput and Brahmin candidates have been preferred by both parties. Women, who are almost half of the district’s 4.15 lakh adult population, and the OBCs, which have about 18 per cent presence in the district, have not found favour as contestants for both parties.

Una district has five Assembly segments, namely Chintpurni (reserved for SC), Gagret, Haroli, Una and Kutlehar. Of the total 10 candidates finalised by the Congress and the BJP for the five Assembly segments, there are five Rajput and three Brahmin candidates, besides two SC candidates for Chintpurni (reserved) segment.

The Rajput candidates include Satpal Satti of the BJP and Satpal Raizada of the Congress from Una segment, Virender Kanwar of the BJP and Devinder Bhutto of the Congress from Kutlehar and Rajesh Thakur of the BJP from Gagret. Another Rajput candidate, Anil Mankotia, has also filed his nominations as AAP candidate from Kutlehar. The Brahmin candidates are Mukesh Agnihotri of the Congress and Ram Kumar of the BJP from Haroli, besides Chaitanya Sharma of the Congress from Gagret.

As per the caste equations in the district, the largest share in the population is that of Rajputs, followed by the Scheduled Castes, then the Brahmins and OBCs. The ST population is only about 1.7 per cent.

However, in a district that boasts of a literacy rate above 87 per cent and an almost a healthy sex ratio of 982 females per 1,000 males, none of the political parties have fielded a single female candidate on any of the five seats. In the past, there have been only two women MLAs in Una district. Sarla Sharma had represented Kutlehar, while Sushma Sharma had represented the Chintpurni Assembly segment. In Gagret, eyes are set on the young Congress candidate Chaitanya Sharma, who had won the last Zila Parishad elections with a margin of over 10,000 votes. In Chintpurni, the Congress’s new face, Sudarshan Bablu, is already facing resistance from Congress-rebel Kuldip Kumar.