On Mukerian Assembly seat, Cong may bet on Babbi’s kin

Sanjiv K Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, September 21

Of the four Assembly seats that will witness bypolls next month, Mukerian is the only seat which the Congress had won in the 2017 polls. The seat had fallen vacant as incumbent MLA Rajneesh Kumar Babbi passed away last month.

Since the seat has remained within the family for nine terms — twice with Babbi as MLA and seven times with his father and former Vidhan Sabha Speaker Dr Kewal Krishan — the party is again contemplating to give the ticket either to Babbi’s lawyer son Sabhya Sachi or wife Indu Kaundal.

Besides sympathy vote, the caste factor too goes in their favour. Rajneesh Babbi had remained national president of All India Ghirt, Bahti, Chahngh Sabha. The Chahngh community has the second largest vote share in Mukerian that had voted in Babbi’s favour even in 2012, when he won as an Independent.

In the BJP, Arunesh Shakar and Jangi Lal Mahajan are the two main contenders for the party ticket. Shakar had won in 1997 and 2007.

Mahajan was Mukerian district president of the BJP and was a serious aspirant of the ticket in 2012 and 2017. He had contested as an Independent when the ticket was given to Shakar. The party is wary that a similar situation may arise if he is denied the ticket again. Thakur Sangram Singh too is in the race for BJP ticket. He belongs to the Rajput community, which has the largest vote share. He was earlier with the Congress but later joined the BJP.

In 2017, Babbi had won with a margin of almost 23,000 votes and but the party trailed by 37,000 votes in 2019 Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha polls from this segment.