Thursday, February 17, 2000,
Chandigarh, India





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Triangular contest on the cards
From Ravi S.Singh
Tribune News Service

GURGAON, Feb 16 — Although there are 13 candidates in the fray, for this constituency, a three-cornered contest is on the cards.

The Congress claims Gurgaon assembly seat to be its traditional bastion with Mr Dharamvir Gabba,a former minister, as its nominee. He has been elected thrice to the Vidhan Sabha. He represented Gurgaon in the recently dissolved assembly.

However,this time he is facing stiff opposition from a rebel INLD leader,Mr Gopi Chand Gehlot,who is in the fray as an Independent and a former minister and BSP nominee, Mr Narbir Singh.

According to observers,the BJP nominee,Mr Tilak Raj Malhotra, is not much in the reckoning and is expected only to cut into the Congress vote bank.

The Congress electioneering is low key when compared to that of Mr Gehlot and Mr Narbir Singh,who has employed two grown-up elephants for the purpose.Mr Gehlot is using life-size balloons with images of Lord Ganesha for canvassing.

Mr Gabba,who is considered to be an old horse, is holding door-to-door visits and wayside public meetings.

The total number of votes in the constituency are 1,90,852.The biggest chunk of 50,000 votes belong to Dalit and other backward classes, followed by about 45,000 votes of Punjabis.The Ahirs have about 30,000 votes and the Jats about 25,000.The ‘Banias’ have about 15,000 votes.

Although three members from the Punjabi community, —Mr Gabba, Mr Malhotra and Mr Manohar Lal Dhingra (Independent) — are in the fray,the Congress claims that the major chunk of Punjabi votes would go to its nominee. Although the Punjabi community had voted against the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections, it is showing preference for Mr Gabba at the local level.

However, Mr Gabba is also at a disadvantage on many counts. First, the anti-incumbency factor is against him. It is on this count that his critics dub him as a “sleeping MLA”, alleging that although he has been in power for so many years he has not done any development work in the constituency nor took part in any agitation in the past three years on any issue concerning the people.

In addition, the change in the general perception about Mr Gehlot indirectly goes to Mr Gabba’s disadvantage. Mr Gehlot,who has resigned from the post of district (Gurgaon) president of the INLD after he was denied the party ticket, is said to have worked among the masses in the last three years. He has a clout among the rural voters.The general impression is that he will corner a maximum of the Jat votes.

Mr Narbir Singh, represented the Sohna assembly seat in the previous Vidhan Sabha. He was one of the leaders instrumental in splitting the HVP and then joining the INLD to help the party come to power under Mr Om Prakash Chautala. But following allegations that he was trying to destabilise the INLD government, Mr Chautala sacked him from his Council of Ministers. He was also instrumental in destabilising the Devi Lal government in the early part of the previous decade. The general impression about him is that he is a “flying saucer” as he often “shifts loyalty and constituency”.

However, the BSP camp claims that he will corner the maximum number of Ahir votes apart from the party’s traditional votes. There are reports that a large number of real estate dealers are supporting him.

The BJP nominee, on his part, faces a daunting task as the INLD voters and workers seem to be siding with Mr Gehlot. Being a functionary of the RSS and not a whole-time politician, he is also not getting the support of the local BJP leaders. This could be attributed to the resentment among the local BJP workers over the denial of the ticket to Mr Sitaram Singla.
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