Congress striving to break 52-yr-old jinx in Narnaund
The Congress has reposed faith in a 34-year-old youth Jasvir Singh, popularly known as Jassi Petwar, in its bid to break the 52-year-old jinx in the Narnaund Assembly segment in Hisar district. Petwar is facing BJP’s senior leader and former Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu.
Though it is considered a direct contest in this Assembly segment, which has 14 candidates in the fray, the performance of the INLD candidate Umed Singh Lohan could impact poll outcome.
The Congress though has been fancying its chances after nearly five decades. Hisar Lok Sabha candidate Jai Prakash had got the maximum lead of about 45,000 votes over his nearest rival — Ranjit Singh of the BJP which helped Jai Prakash win by about 66,000 votes. Based on the Congress’s performance, the ticket aspirants in the Congress were too enthusiastic and thus the battle for the ticket went on till the last day of filing of nomination papers in the Congress for this segment. So much so, the Congress could announce the candidate just about five hours before the expiry of the time for filing of the nomination.
Record of the previous legislatures from this segment indicated that the Congress could win this seat only twice in 15 contests in its electoral history. Congress candidate Sarup Singh won the first Assembly election after the Independence in 1951. The second victory was registered by another Congress candidate Joginder Jog in 1972.
However, the Congress had been losing this seat consecutively after the 1972 polls. Janta Party/Lok Dal leader Virender Singh had recorded win for four times — in 1977, 1982, 1987 and 1991. Even the BJP had won this seat twice — in 2005 and 2014.
BJP candidate Capt Abhimanyu became the Finance Minister in the first term of the BJP government, though he lost to JJP leader Ram Kumar Gautam in the last Assembly poll. Now, Gautam too has joined the BJP, which came as a shot in the arm for the BJP candidate.
Congress candidate Petwar had also contested the 2019 election as the INLD candidate and could get only 4,599 votes.
