Amid controversies, Congress wrests Narnaund seat after 52 yrs

Even as the Congress won the Narnaund Assembly seat after 52 years, this seat was as a bone of contention between two Congress stalwarts -- former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Sirsa MP Kumari Selja -- which led to the turn of events in the Assembly polls.

The Congress had given ticket to Jasvir Singh (34) from this seat, who defeated senior BJP leader and former Minister Capt Abhimanyu by 12,578 votes. The victory margin had reduced drastically in comparison to the lead taken by Congress LS candidate from Hisar, Jai Prakash, in Lok Sabha poll. Prakash had secured a lead of about 43,000 votes from Narnaund segment.

Sensing the positive mood of the voters, there was an intense tussle for the Congress ticket among a number of aspirants, including Jasvir Singh, Dr Ajay Chaudhary, Ram Bhagat, Dinesh Sheoran and others. Finally, Jasvir, known as a loyalist of former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, managed to get the ticket on the last day of filing of the nomination papers. The Congress declared his ticket a few hours before the closing of the nomination papers process with the Election Office.

On the other hand, Kumari Selja hasd been lobbying for the ticket for her loyalist Dr Ajay Chaudhary who is son of four-time MLA from Narnaund Assembly seat Virender Singh. Chaudhary had also organised a massive rally in Narnaund as a show of strength where Kumari Selja also assured the gathering that they (people) should ensure the victory of Dr Ajay Chaudhary in the elections.

Political experts say that the denial of ticket to Dr Ajay Chaudhary irked Selja and she maintained distance for some days from poll campaign. Her absence from the poll scene was made a poll issue by the rival BJP and even former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar publicly invited Selja to join BJP alleging that she was not being given due honour in the Congress. Though Selja dismissed such overtures as wild speculations adding that she would remain in the Congress throughout her whole life.

The incident in which casteist remarks were passed against Selja by a Congress supporter, Pirthi Singh, added fuel to the fire for Dalit voters and also gave ammunition to the BJP to target the party. Though a criminal case was registered against the man, the viral video caused much damage to the social fabric which also translated into a setback to the Congress in political terms.

ML Goyal, retired professor of political science, said that these turn of events, coupled by the Dalit-centric narrative of the BJP sent out a signal among the Dalit voters that Selja was not given due justice in the allocation of tickets by the Congress. “The Dalit voters see it as a humiliation and thus some of them turned indifferent to the Congress and even shifted to the BJP,” he said.