Kurukshetra, October 3
It’s undoubtedly an election that is being fought on the development plank. However, in assembly segments of Kurukshetra district, rebels and Independents are playing spoilsport and upsetting the calculations of candidates fighting on the party ticket.

Further, the caste swing, too, is likely to play a decisive role in who ultimately emerges the winner.

If it’s disadvantage Congress in one segment, it is disadvantage the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in another and the Bharatiya Janta Party in the third. Though the public seems convinced that development, especially in villages, has been the hallmark of the Congress government, it doesn’t seem satisfied with merely that.

As one villager in Pehowa puts it, “Our village has got a lot of money in the Congress rule. That’s all very good but it does not bring in a salary. Unemployment is a big problem and it has only gone up. Jobs are nowhere in sight.”

In Pehowa, three independents are wrecking havoc in a triangular contest. Agriculture Minister and Congress candidate Harmohinder Singh Chatha is locked in battle with BJP’s Balbir Singh Saini and INLD’s Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, both of them being former agriculture ministers themselves.

In a close finish among the three in 2005, Chatha emerged the winner. However, this time, an independent as also Baba Baldev of the Haryana Janhit Congress and a former INLD supporter are messing up the game for the party candidates.

In the newly carved out Ladwa seat, the three main candidates in the contest have their roots in the INLD. While Kailasho Saini is fighting on the Congress ticket, having broken off with the INLD during the recent Lok Sabha elections after being denied the party ticket, BJP’s Mewa Singh too has been a member of Ladwa Zila Parishad from the INLD previously. INLD’s Sher Singh Badshami, a confidante of party supremo Om Prakash Chautala, is also in the fray.

A former Congressman is contesting as an independent from Thanesar. The seat, recently crafted, has no issues and agenda, the candidates going into this election with no baggage from the past.

In Thanesar, INLD state president Ashok Arora is up against Congress’s Ramesh Gupta, BJP’s Krishan Bajaj and HJC’s Balkar Singh. Traditionally backed by the Ror community, the INLD is likely to suffer at this seat with the HJC fielding a candidate of the community and the BJP likely to share the Punjabi vote bank.

Further, independent candidate Subhash Sudha, a local leader, too, will pull votes from all sections, adding to the troubles of the party candidates.

In Kurukshetra, Shahbad seems to be the one bright spot for two reasons - it’s the only seat which does not fear the “rebel factor” because the seat has been reserved for the first time. Also, the candidates fielded by most of the parties are young.

Congress candidate and first-timer Anil Dhantori, campaigning with vigour, has the support of local Congress leaders.

“Every Congress leader belonged to the general category. Since they can’t grumble about ticket allotment, they are going all out in helping the party candidate win the seat,” explains a shopkeeper.

Dhantori, the only local candidate who has been handpicked by Rahul Gandhi, is contesting against BJP’s Krishan Kumar and INLD’s Jatinder Kumar among others. 

Gurgaon, October 3
A civil engineer by profession, this Independent is hoping to beat seasoned politicians in the assembly elections. His main agenda is to provide basic amenities to residents of Gurgaon.

RS Rathee (44) has the support of about 200 residents’ welfare associations (RWAs). He said Gurgaon, which is known as a millennium city, has now become a problem city due to its crumbling infrastructure.

He talks of erratic power and water supply, waterlogging during rains, traffic problems and many other public issues.

Rathee said: “Successive MLAs in the past have not come up to the expectations of residents, who want better roads, clean surroundings and regular power and water supply. If elected, I will ensure a better living environment for the residents.”

Rathee has a vast experience in development and maintenance of civic amenities and community facilities. He has devoted over 10 years of his time in public services as the president of the DLF Qutub Enclave RWA and Gurgaon Citizens Council (GCC).

Rathee is a known face in the city, but will have to work hard as he is locked in a direct fight with Dharam Bir Gaba of the Congress, Maniram Sharma of the INLD, Umesh Aggarwal of the BJP and Bhim Singh Rathi of the BSP.

Dharma Sagar, member of the GCG, said if the present government would have worked for the betterment of the city, they would have been more than happy but none took care to look into the problems of the general public.

Chandigarh, October 3
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that a “state government is well within its right to prescribe maximum age for promotional post along with other conditions” and the courts are “not equipped with the expertise of laying down such a criteria”.

The ruling came on a petition by Rajbir Singh against the state of Haryana and other respondents. The petitioner, an ex-serviceman, had asserted that his date of birth was November 21, 1960. After discharge from the Army, he was appointed as constable on November 25, 1998. But as he was not fulfilling the requirement of age prescribed in the relevant police rules, he approached the court seeking directions to the respondents to consider him eligible.

Directions were also sought against enforcing the maximum age bar of 40 years prescribed in the rules, “As it has no nexus with the object sought to be achieved”. His counsel had contended that the five years of his service as a constable should be considered sufficient irrespective of the age.

Taking up the matter, the Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Jaswant Singh asserted: “We find that the maximum age limit prescribed by the rules, along with 10 years of service that makes a person eligible for taking B-1 test for promotion to the post of head constable, does not suffer from any legal or constitutional infirmity warranting interference of this court.

“The state government is well within its right to prescribe maximum age for promotional post, along with other conditions keeping in view the requirement of the duties to be performed by an incumbent after promotion. A large number of factors entered consideration before deciding the maximum or minimum age criterion.”

“All these factors are subjected to expert opinions collected by the department. The courts are not equipped with the expertise of laying down such a criteria, therefore, always lean towards upholding the age criteria unless total arbitrariness is shown.” Before parting with the orders, the Bench ruled: “The writ petition fails and the same is dismissed.”

Chandigarh, October 3
The battle royale during the Haryana assembly elections will be fought in Uchana Kalan in Jind district.It may be a fight to the finish between descendants of two legendary Jat leaders. Om Prakash Chautala, son of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, has thrown a challenge to Finance Minister and senior Congress leader Birender Singh, grandson of Sir Chhotu Ram, who is revered by the farming community for his role in liberating it from the clutches of private moneylenders before Independence. Both have their constituencies in their community.

After 1993, Chautala has taken a fancy to contest from Jind district in addition to his native district of Sirsa. Perhaps because Narwana in Jind district, considered to be the heart of Haryana, had marked his political rehabilitation after the Meham mayhem, when he successfully contested a byelection in 1993 against Randeep Singh Surjewala. Since then he has been contesting from Jind district.

From 1993 to 2005, Chautala contested from Narwana, which is adjacent to Uchana Kalan, the traditional seat of Birender Singh. Since Narwana has been reserved now, the former Chief Minister has shifted to Uchana Kalan.

The traditional rivalry between Birender Singh and the Surjewalas helped Chautala in establishing his base in this area.

Chautala has an advantage over his rival in the sense that the INLD leader has taken an “insurance policy” against his defeat. He is trying his luck from Ellenabad also in Sirsa district, considered to be the pocket borough of the Chautala clan.

A defeat in Uchana Kalan can be compensated for by a win in Ellenabad. However, for Birender Singh, a loss in Uchana Kalan will be a setback to his ambition to become the Chief Minister.

Since Birender Singh is not the “high command” of his party like Chautala is of the INLD, he could not contest from two seats.

No wonder, the major refrain of the Birender Singh’s campaign is focused around the theme of “ghar ka chhora” versus an outsider.

After the first Meham episode, Chautala has made it a point to contest from two seats. When re-election was held in Meham in 1990, Chautala had contested from Meham in Rohtak district as well as Darba Kalan in Sirsa district. While the Meham election was countermanded following the murder of an Independent candidate, Amir Singh, Chautala romped home with a huge margin from Darba.

In the following General Election of 1991, his father Devi Lal had not allowed any other member of his family, except himself, to contest the elections.

In 1996, Chautala contested from Narwana and Rori in Sirsa district. He lost in Narwana and won from Rori. In 2000, he again contested both seats and won them, later vacating Rori for his younger son Abhay Singh. Five years later again he contested from Narwana and Rori. This time he lost from Narwana but won from Rori. Now Rori has been abolished, forcing Chautala to shift to Ellenabad.

When Chautala can be sure of an easy victory in Sirsa district, why does he choose to contest from “difficult” constituencies? Because, he loves challenge.

He could have contested from Thanesar when Meham-I took place. At that time he told this reporter that he contested from Meham because “Mere ko nyote ka jawab bhi to dena tha (I had to reply to the challenge)” At that time Anand Singh Dangi, a protégé of Devi Lal, had challenged him to contest from Meham. The rest is history.

Sirsa, October 3
The INLD today launched an aggressive campaign in the Ellenabad seat, where the party Supremo Om Parkash Chautala himself is a candidate. Chautala’s sons Ajay Chautala, Rajya Sabha MP, and Abhey Chautala were in Ellenabad today seeking votes for their father.

Ellenabad is prestigious for Chautala, who is contesting from Uchana in Jind too, but this being a seat in his home district, the party wants to cash in on aspirations of the local people. Chautala is pitted against Bharat Singh Beniwal of the Congress, Devi Lal Beniwal of the HJC, Amir Chand Mehta of the BJP, PS Khosa of the BSP and Sudhir Beniwal of the SBP, besides, two independents. Bharat Singh Beniwal was sitting MLA from Darba Kalan, a constituency abolished during delimitation.

“Put in all your efforts to elect the INLD government in these elections and we will see to it that government jobs come to your doorsteps,” Ajay Chautala said in his address at Madhosinghana village today.

“The way the Hooda government has treated your area is before you to see. Not to speak of government jobs, even drinking water has become a scarcity in his regime,” he added.

In an effort to woo Sikh voters, Ajay said Punjabi would be given the status of second language immediately after the INLD came to power and 10,000 new Punjabi language teachers would be appointed.

Addressing meetings in Keshupura, Kutabarh, Rattakhera, Humanyukhera and Talwara, Abhey Chautala, a former MLA, castigated the Congress for spiralling prices of essential commodities.

Abhey Chautala alleged that the Congress was a party of the capitalists and had always framed its policies considering the interests of the rich industrialists.

Meanwhile, Beniwal toured various villages of the constituency today seeking support for him and also for mobilising people for tomorrow’s rally at Sirsa to be addressed by Sonia Gandhi.

NIT (Faridabad), October 3
Sitting Congress MLA AC Chaudhary is facing a stiff contest in the NIT assembly segment from an Independent, Shiv Charan Sharma, who is also the Senior Deputy Mayor of the Faridabad Municipal Corporation.

What is causing heartburn in the Congress circles is that Sharma, a three-time councillor, was a party loyalist who turned rebel following the denial of the ticket.

The main contest seems to be among Chaudhary, Shiv Charan Sharma and BJP’s Mahender Bhadana, also a councillor.

Chaudhary had carved out a niche among the Punjabi voters, but post-delimitation, 75 per cent of areas dominated by Punjabis have been shifted to the newly created Badkal constituency. In the bargain, about a dozen villages dominated by Gujjars have been included in it.

Now, the assembly segment has about two dozen colonies, mainly comprising migrants, and the added villages.

Sharma, who migrated from UP about four decades ago, is considered popular with the migrants. He and his wife have earned the goodwill of the migrants over the years by tending to their problems.

Chaudhary is said to have concentrated on the Punjabi vote bank. The migrants constitute more than 20 per cent of the about 1,50,000 voters in this assembly segment.

The Punjabis constitute 30,000 and Gujjars and Brahmins account for about 15,000 votes. Brahmins are likely to go with Shiv Charan Sharma.

There are four Gujjar candidates in the fray, causing confusion in the community and the spectre of a possible division of its votes looms large.

Another factor working against Chaudhary is that he has antagonised a section of the Congress on account of his open opposition to the candidature of Congress MP from Faridabad Avtaar Singh Bhadana during the last Lok Sabha elections.