Defending seat a challenge for sitting MPs in Hisar

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, April 25

It has always been a tough task for incumbent MP to retain the Hisar seat, with the exception of the 1998 and 1999 General Election.

Surender Barwala only exception

• Jai Prakash, known as JP, won in 1989 as the Janta Dal nominee, in 1996 as an HVP candidate and in 2004 on Congress ticket, but failed to defend his seat in 1991, 1998, 2009 and 2011 bypoll
• Surender Barwala won in 1998 and 1999. But, he also suffered defeat in the 2004 elections, when he tried his luck for the third time
• Socialist leader Mani Ram Bagri, Birender Singh, Kuldeep Bishnoi and Dushyant Chautala too lost while defending the seat

The Election Commission data reveals that of 18 contests, only Surender Barwala of the INLD could defend the seat when he rejoined the fray as MP in 1999. He also won in 1998. Barwala also suffered defeat in the 2004 elections, when he tried his luck for the third time.

Jai Prakash, known as JP, an MP from Hisar, won in 1989 as the Janata Dal nominee, in 1996 as an HVP candidate and in 2004 on Congress ticket. But lost trying to defend his seat in 1991, 1998, 2009 and 2011 bypoll.

Earlier, socialist leader Mani Ram Bagri had tried his luck, when he was an MP in 1962. He too lost the next two elections in 1967 and 1971. He, however, won for the second time in 1980.

Even Congress leader Birender Singh, who won in 1984 by defeating Lok Dal leader Om Prakash Chautala, could not retain the seat in 1989, when was defeated by JP.

Kuldeep Bishnoi, who claimed Bhajan Lal’s legacy, won the seat in 2011 after the demise of his father, but could not defend the seat in 2014, when a young Dushyant Chautala (INLD) defeated him.

Political experts say that the political temperament of people in Hisar is quite volatile. “They seem to take pride in inflicting a defeat rather than working to ensure the win of a candidate,” they say.

In the present scenario, the BJP has given ticket to a new candidate, Ranjit Singh, after sitting MP Brijendra Singh defected to the Congress recently. Brijendra is one of the aspirants for Congress ticket.

“Will he be able to match Barwala’s feat?” Prof ML Goyal, a political expert, wondered, adding that a look at the nine other Lok Sabha segments had revealed that Hisar was unique in that sense. “There are leaders who have successfully defended their seats in all other constituencies,” he said.