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Monday, Jan 31, 2005

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Adampur, Bhajan Lal's pocket borough

By K.V. Prasad

ADAMPUR (HARYANA), JAN. 30. Locating this small town in Haryana is not difficult, for in this old Hissar region, Adampur acquired fame for two things — the wholesale market and Bhajan Lal. The political presence of the State Congress chief, Mr. Bhajan Lal, who aspires to occupy the Chief Minster's chair once again, can be felt all over.

Forty km west of industrial town of Hissar is Mandi Adampur, a wholesale market from where Mr. Bhajan Lal began his three decade-old political journey. Even now Hari Singh Rao, his lieutenant for 50 years, says he runs the commission agent shop, performing the role of both messenger and manager.

``There is such a lot of goodwill for Chaudhary Sahib (Mr. Bhajan Lal) he has been winning since 1968. He does not have to campaign here. Even those who contested against him in the past are now rubbing shoulders with him,'' says Hari Ram, who currently mans his campaign office here.

With over 1.40 lakh votes spread across 60 villages, Adampur, which forms part of the Bhiwani Lok Sabha constituency, has returned Mr. Bhajan Lal regularly barring 1987 when his wife, Jasma Devi, and in late 1990s when his son, Kuldeep Bishnoi, got elected in a by-election. The vote share varied between 55 to nearly 70 per cent during the 2000 Assembly polls.

The person who opposed him during the last polls, Ganeshi Lal of the Bharatiya Janata Party is now BJP State chief while in 1996 it was Surinder Singh of the erstwhile Haryana Vikas Party, now a Congress candidate from Tosham.

Mr. Bhajan Lal spent three days in his constituency last week and will return on the polling day, February 3. ``After all he has to take care of Haryana,'' says Rajaram Khichad, his supporter, as others with him nod in agreement. Mr. Rajaram is a Bishnoi, the non-Jat community to which Mr. Bhajan Lal belongs.

Adampur is Mr. Bhajan Lal's pocket borough and yet there are as many as nine challengers, including one each from the BJP, the Indian National Lok Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party, the rest being independents.

The INLD has not left anything to chance. The ruling party has fielded young Rajinder Godhra, brother-in-law of the Rajya Sabha MP, Ajay Chautala. And his supporters make it appear that there is a `contest', seeking votes on the plank of development. They are aware that the task is uphill but the effort is to garner as many votes as possible.

``For the past three days, there is a slight change. People of Haryana feel that Congress leaders are busy fighting among themselves with an eye on the Chief Minister's chair. We got more than 4,000 votes from this constituency in the last Lok Sabha elections and our candidate would cross this. Our graph is going up,'' claimed Rajinder Singh, an INLD supporter.

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