Gohana (Sonepat), May 25
The emphatic victory of Congress candidate Jagbir Singh Malik in the Gohana assembly byelection with a record margin of over 22,000 votes has triggered a debate among political observers.

The sweeping result of the byelection has come as a pleasant surprise even to the ruling Congress, many of whose leaders and sympathisers had not expected such a big win.

A critical analysis of the election result indicates that the Congress bagged a lion’s share of Jat votes in the constituency, which is dominated by the farming community.

These include the loyal supporters of the Lok Dal (now INLD), including non-Malik voters, who seem to have switched their loyalty to the Congress in this byelection.

The emergence of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as a state-level Jat leader of the Deswali belt has played a significant role in the tilting of the balance towards the ruling party.

This pro-Hooda wave among the Jat - especially non-Malik - voters, who have traditionally remained a vote bank of the Lok Dal, has come as a big jolt to the INLD leadership.

Nonetheless, the INLD may seek some solace in the fact that the Scheduled Caste voters, which have not backed the party in earlier elections, have shown some closeness to it in this bypoll.

Still, the INLD as well as the BJP will have to do some serious rethinking over their stance of going it alone in the state assembly elections.

The Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) candidate, Dharampal Malik, who had won the last Assembly election by a comfortable margin, not only finished fifth, but also lost his security deposit.

According to political pundits, the Jat voters who either felt alienated from the HJC due to its pro-non-Jat stance or had foreseen Dharmpal Malik’s defeat also voted in favour of the Congress.

All in all, the byelection results have strengthened the hands of Hooda by marking the beginning of Jat votes’ polarisation towards the Congress.

Hisar, May 25
Former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal retained the confidence of non-Jat voters in his pocket borough of Adampur assembly constituency which he won today for the eighth time since 1966.

The two other elections from this constituency since then too were won once each by his wife Jasma Devi and son Kuldeep Bishnoi.

Bhajan Lal’s stronghold, dominated by fellow Bishnois, stood by him despite pressures from the state machinery. The areas included Adampur mandi, Adampur village, Kalwas, Mingnikhera, Sadalpur, Siswal and Khara Barwala.

Congress nominee Ranjit Singh benefited from the development projects initiated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Balsamand village, which alone accounts for about 10,000 voters. The villages in this belt which backed the Congress included Deva, Ludas and Muklan.

In Balsamand, the Hooda regime set up an ITI, built a stadium and constructed an anaj mandi. Several youths from the village were recently recruited in government jobs. The Chief Minister has been visiting the constituency regularly since assuming office.

INLD’s Sampat Singh narrowly escaped losing his security deposit. However, his 20,000 plus votes came from voters spread all over the constituency. They mainly included Jat voters.

The BJP and the CPM nominees fared extremely poorly. They together polled around 3,000 votes. The BJP had fared better here when its nominee Swami Raghvanand had contested from the Hisar Lok Sabha seat in 2004.

Reacting to his father’s victory, HJC (BL) chief Kuldeep Bishnoi, MP, said his party’s performance in the three byelections was an indication of the change people wanted in Haryana. He said his party had emerged as an alternative in Haryana to the Congress and the INLD.

Bishnoi said he did not consider the loss of the Indri seat by just around 5,000 votes as a defeat. He said the polls came before they could even mobilise their cadres in Haryana. From that angle his party’s performance was even better, he added.

He said he was looking forward to the Lok Sabha poll and claimed that his party would sweep the forthcoming parliamentary election. Bishnoi ruled out any tie-up for the next Lok Sabha poll.

On the other hand, Congress nominee Ranjit Singh attributed his defeat to fellow Congressmen who, he alleged, worked against him. He said he would lodge a formal complaint against these party men to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Chandigarh, May 25
For Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the victory of the Congress in two of the three assembly byelections is personal. Not only the party nominees were his personal choice, he and his MP son Deepender Hooda left no stone unturned during the campaigning to ensure the victory of the party.

So intense was the campaigning that the byelections had become a sort of a referendum on the leadership of Hooda, INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala and Bhajan Lal (via proxy his younger son Kuldeep Bishnoi). And the results have proved those wrong who had been alleging that Hooda had been “imposed” as the Chief Minister by the high command.

The Congress victory in Gohana, considered to be a Jat seat, as well as from Indri, a non-Jat seat, shows that Hooda’s influence extends much beyond the “old” Rohtak district. His nominee’s performance in Adampur, the pocket borough of Bhajan Lal, where the Congress ended up second and victory margin of the former Chief Minister was drastically reduced, is an indicator that Hooda, who was a major factor in turning the sympathy of Deswali Jats towards the Congress in the last elections, is making inroads among the Bagri Jats also. This should set alarming bells ringing within the INLD, the leadership of which belongs to the Bagri Jats.

Before Hooda came on the scene, persons belonging to the Bagri belt ruled the state for most of the time, may it be Bansi Lal, Devi Lal, Bhajan Lal or Chautala.

Though the victory of Bhajan Lal in Adampur alone does not indicate the acceptance of his younger son’s nascent outfit, Haryana Janhit Congress (BL), the party’s performance in Indri has put the HJC way ahead of the BJP as a claimant for the status of the “third alternative”. The party’s performance should also cause a worry to the INLD.

But Gohana has a lesson for both the Congress and HJC. Those non-Jat voters who are annoyed with the Congress cannot be taken for granted by the HJC, the main plank of which is non-Jat politics, though not as obvious as the BSP has made. If the HJC puts up candidates who are not popular with the electorate, the non-Jat voters can turn to the INLD, as they seem to have done in Gohana, in a bid to defeat the Congress.

The Congress will have to pay more attention to the urban voters than what it has been paying so far, if the party wants to retain power in the state.

With this victory, Hooda has no doubt emerged stronger within his party. His leadership will now remain unchallenged for the rest of his tenure. There were many leaders in his party who remained lukewarm to the campaigning for the Congress or even indirectly worked against it in the hope that a defeat in the byelections will weaken the Chief Minister.

In that case, they hoped, they would have more chances to extract pounds of flesh from Hooda. Some even hoped that a defeat might compel the high command to change horses midway. They must be greatly disappointed with the results.

The results must make to Hooda to sit and ponder - why a section of the voters feels disappointed with his governance despite his having launched several welfare schemes. He must crack a whip to make the lazy horse (read bureaucracy) to move at a faster speed.

The Lok Sabha elections are less than a year away, which will be followed by the assembly elections in another one year. The voter may not be as obliging towards the Congress as it had been in the byelections.

Karnal, May 25
Even as the Congress has won the Indri assembly seat, political observers say the INLD has significantly improved its base in the area.

Congress candidate Bhim Sen Mehta won the bypoll by a margin of 5,865 votes from his nearest rival of HJC (BL) Rakesh Kamboj. Mehta polled 38,833 votes while Kamboj polled 32,968.

INLD candidate Ashok Kashyap got 31,297 votes.

The BJP ended with just 2,192 votes whereas it had secured 8,901 votes in the 2004 assembly poll. A total of 1,15,275 votes were polled in this rural belt. No postal vote was cast.

Inducted into the Congress a few weeks before the bypoll, Mehta is believed to have a strong hold in the Indri township and among the Punjabi community. Sources said due to various political and social factors, he managed to win the seat.

During the 2004 assembly elections, Mehta had contested as an Independent and got 21,162 votes.

Kamboj, then a Congress candidate, had led the 2004 vote tally with 40,740 votes.

Interestingly, the INLD has improved its graph from 21,134 votes in 2004 to 31,297 votes in this bypoll.

According to the political observers, the Congress benefited from the vote bank of the Ekta Shakti Party.

Angrez Singh Dhumsi had got 14,266 votes in the 2004 elections as the Ekta Shakti candidate. Since he supported the Congress candidate this time, Ekta Shakti chief Maratha Virender Verma ended up with just 5,593 votes. Experts say Backward Classes voters in the Yamuna belt voted for the Congress. Similarly, the Congress also gained from the reduced BJP vote bank.

Observers say the INLD has succeeded in wooing Jat and Punjabi voters. It is mainly due to the Jat factor that it has improved its vote tally by a margin of 11,000 votes.

Sources said HJC (BL) candidate Rakesh Kamboj gained sympathy of rural voters to the Karnal cane-charge incident in which he was beaten up by policemen during a protest march.

It is widely believed that the official outburst of the BSP against HJC (BL) supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi affected Kamboj’s vote bank. Sources said Bishnoi's anti-Jat stand was not accepted by voters of certain communities.

Yamunanagar, May 25
A local court has sentenced a man to one year of rigorous imprisonment in a cheque-bounce case.

He was also asked to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 to the complainant or else further undergo a month’s simple imprisonment.

Vijay Thakur of Model Town here had moved an application in the court of Judicial Magistrate (first class) Ashwani Kumar under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

Thakur in her complaint had said Darshan Lal, a partner in M\s Subhash Chand Sohan Lal, had borrowed Rs 48,000 from her. She had given the money vide two bank cheques and Lal was supposed to pay an interest of 18 per cent per annum on the amount.

She said Lal kept prolonging the repayment of the loan amount and ultimately issued three cheques amounting to Rs 73,000 in August 2005 as full and final consideration of the total loan amount. Thakur had lent him the money in August 1997 and July 1998.

However, when Thakur went for the encashment of cheques, they were dishonoured as the accounts on which cheques were issued were closed.

Lal ignored the legal notice sent to him by Thakur.

The defense council had argued that his client (Lal) had issued the cheques as security of the loan amount and Thakur was to return the cheques after repayment of the entire loan. The council argued that the complainant presented the cheques even after repayment of the loan.

The judge in his order said the cheques were issued about eight years after the loan was taken and hence could not be a security for the loan. The judge also observed that the accused could not prove that he had returned the loan amount.

The judicial magistrate also rejected the request of leniency of the defense court during arguments on the quantum of sentence.

Lal was sentenced for commission of offences under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

Rewari, May 25
Members of the Gujjar community expressed grief and resentment over the death of about three dozen persons of the Gujjar Samaj in police firing in Bayana and Dausa areas of Rajasthan at a district-level protest meeting here today. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Bhai Sheo Lal.

They announced that a bandh would be observed in Rewari on May 27 in protest against the killings and the apathy of the Vasundhara Raje government of Rajasthan towards the rightful demand of the Rajasthan Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti (RGASS).

They also gave an ultimatum that if their demand of provision of scheduled tribe status to the Gujjar Samaj in Rajasthan was not accepted immediately, they would block traffic on the Delhi-Jaipur highway at Banipur Chowk near here on May 30.

Simultaneously, they said in compliance with the protesters’ plea, factories at Dharuhera and Bawal would also observe a holiday on May 30.

Meanwhile, Bhiwadi town of Alwar district in Rajasthan, 20 km from here, observed a bandh for the second consecutive day today while the agitating members of the Gujjar Samaj of the Bhiwadi region blocked traffic at Bhiwadi for the second day in succession expressing their solidarity with the struggle of the RGASS.

YAMUNANAGAR: Criticising the police firing on protesting Gujjars in Rajasthan, leaders of the Gujjar community in the district have demanded that the Rajasthan government should immediately accept their demands.

Lone BSP MLA from the state and Gujjar leader Arjun Singh, who had gone to Rajasthan to provided material help to the Gujjars, who were affected by the police action last year, said atrocities on unarmed Gujjars, who were demanding reservation, was condemnable.

Sirsa, May 25
Record wheat production in the district and rise in the value of Muchal variety (PUSA) of paddy in the international market have shot up the rent of agricultural land by a staggering 50 per cent here.

The phenomenon is noticed at the fag end of the procurement season. However, it has gradually gripped the entire district though the rate of rent varies depending upon the crop.

The impact of rise in the prices of foodgrains, especially rice, in the international market has forced the steep hike in the rent of the land conducive for sowing paddy in general and PUSA basmati (P-1) in particular.

PUSA is known as Muchal in local parlance and it is mainly grown in Rania block where water for irrigation is available and soil is conducive for the crop.

A quintal of PUSA basmati, which used to fetch somewhere between Rs 2,200 and Rs 2,500 last season, is bringing Rs 3,500 in the international market.

A farmer, Jaswant Singh, who possesses eight acres in Rania, said they were getting about Rs 36,000 per year for leasing one acre. Earlier, they used to get no more than Rs 15,000 for the same area.

Manohar Lal Bhatia has leased his five acres in Moriwala village to farmers. He said he received Rs 20,500 for an acre, which used to fetch not more than Rs 14,000.

The district has produced record quantity of wheat this season. The government agencies have procured over 60.70 lakh metric tonne wheat this season.

Pradeep Kumar, deputy director, agriculture, averred that increase in the rent of agricultural land was but natural. The MSP for wheat was raised to Rs 1,100 and a tiller earned about Rs 50,000 from an acre of land under Pusa basmati.

Kurukshetra, May 25
Chander Shekhar Khare and Sudha Gupta, former students of Gita Niketan Awasiya Vidyalaya, Kurukshetra, have brought laurels to their school and the city by achieving the fourth and 235th ranks, respectively, in the civil services examination.

Stating this here yesterday, principal Rishi Goel said Chander Shekhar, son of Randhir Singh, an executive engineer in the Haryana irrigation department, had passed his 10+2 in 1998 from the school. After doing MBBS, he prepared for the civil services examination. Chander Shekhar has secured the fourth position in the civil services examination. So far, no candidate from Haryana had achieved this position, Goel added.

Similarly, Sudha Gupta, daughter of local businessman Bhushan Gupta, also passed her 10+2 from the same school in 2000. She cleared the UGC’s Junior Research Fellowship. While teaching in the commerce department of Kurukshetra University, she made it to the civil services in the first attempt.

The managing committee, staff and students of Gita Niketan Awasiya Vidyalaya have expressed their heartfelt delight on the achievements by their alumni.

Karnal, May 25
The All-India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) has advocated the inclusion of PUSA 1121 in the basmati category.

Popularly known as the world’s “longest cooking rice”, the variety has an impressive global market. Iran has emerged as the major importer of the “elite” variety of rice with an international price tag between $1,600 and $2000 per tonne.

According to an estimate, nearly 60 per cent of the paddy-sown area in Haryana is under the PUSA 1121 variety.

The AIREA told The Tribune that in view of the depleting water table in the country, it had proved to be a friendly variety.

Vijay Setia, president of the AIREA, said the paddy variety required less water, power and fertilisers in comparison with the traditional varieties of basmati.

He clarified that the export of this high-price variety would have not affect the food scenario as of the total production, nearly 90 per cent was exported.

The association blamed the centre for going slow on including the high-profit paddy variety in the basmati category.

Once granted the basmati status, PUSA 1121 will be officially allowed to be exported to Europe, giving a boost to the economy of farmers.

Yamunanagar, May 25
As many as 20 cops, including head constables, were found absent from duty by senior superintendent of police C.S. Rao during a surprise inspection of the city police station last evening.

Of the 59 cops who were supposed to be on duty, 20 were missing. The SSP reportedly bolted the door from inside and started taking attendance and marked absent in the register against the names of those who were not present.

Sources said the shift changed at 8 pm and all cops on duty were supposed to be at the police station. When Rao reached the police station and sensed the number of cops were less, he got a counting done.

Those who were found absent from duty will be poorer by a day’s salary.