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New Delhi

New seat, old faces, surprise entrants

Sandeep Joshi

Photo: S. Subramanium

Rao Inderjit Singh, Congress candidate for Lok Sabha from Gurgaon, campaigning at Sigrawali village in the constituency.

GURGAON: The newly-created Gurgaon parliamentary constituency, which includes the Muslim-dominated Mewat district, is likely to witness a keen battle of the ballot in the Lok Sabha elections. In the fray here are Union Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh (Congress), former MP Sudha Yadav (BJP) and Zakir Hussein (BSP), son of the late Haryana Minister and influential Meo leader Taiyab Hussein. The entry of Rao Narveer Singh of Haryana Janhit Congress headed by former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal has made the contest even more interesting.

Part of neighbouring Mahendergarh parliamentary constituency earlier, the new Gurgaon seat was carved out during the delimitation exercise covering nine Haryana Assembly segments – Gurgaon, Sohna, Rewari, Pataudi, Badshahpur, Nuh, Ferozepur Jhirka, Bawal and Punhana. Five of these nine Assembly seats are held by the Congress and four by Independents.

With over 12-lakh voters, living mostly in the rural belt, the Gurgaon constituency embraces five Assembly segments of the erstwhile Mahendergarh seat and four of the erstwhile Faridabad seat. Mewat district, which earlier came under Faridabad constituency, has become part of Gurgaon constituency post-delimitation. As a result, Muslims with over 25 per cent of the total electorate have emerged as the biggest force in this constituency, while around 20 per cent are from the Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes. Brahmins, Jats, Rajputs, Gujjars and Punjabis together constitute over 30 per cent of the voters.

Keeping religion, caste and other factors in mind, Rao Inderjit Singh, MP from erstwhile Mahendergarh, shifted to Gurgaon. Son of former Haryana Chief Minister Rao Birender Singh, this Ahir leader hopes to get elected on the performance of the Congress-led governments at the Centre and in Haryana. Credited with bringing the country’s first defence university to his constituency, Mr. Singh hopes that development works carried out in the region and the multi-crore farm loan waiver scheme of the Manmohan Singh Government would see him through this time too.

However, Sudha Yadav, widow of the Kargil martyr who defeated Mr. Singh in 1999, is banking on the alliance between the BJP and Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal. Ms. Yadav is not only concentrating on the voters of old and new Gurgaon by raising civic problems and corruption as a major issue, she is also highlighting “gross neglect” of rural areas, particularly the Mewat region, by the Congress-led Hooda Government.

Desperate to increase its influence outside Uttar Pradesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded a strong candidate from Gurgaon. Zakir Hussein is a popular Mewati leader who has been elected MLA on two occasions from the region. After he defected from the Congress last year, Ms. Mayawati declared his candidature from Gurgaon hoping to corner not only one-fourth of the Muslim votes but also a good number of SC and OBC votes. Though the Congress later tried to woo Mr. Hussein, he remained with the BSP.

Similarly, Rao Narbir Singh of the Haryana Janhit Congress, who has been an MP and also a minister in Haryana, enjoys some influence in the region.

Whatever the final outcome, he at least has the potential to garner a good chunk of votes to spoil political permutations and combinations in the constituency.

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