Brothers, CM hopeful locked in keen contest in Jat heartland

The sitting Indian National Lok Dal MLA, Parminder Dhull is locked in a keen fight with his brother and Congress candidate Dharminder Dhull in the Jat heartland.

Interestingly, though Julana has never elected a non-Jat candidate so far, the electoral battle has become more intense with a Brahmin candidate, Arvind Sharma, who is contesting on Bahujan Samaj Party ticket, entering the fray this time.

Parminder is son of six-time MLA Dal Singh, who was popularly known as “khunda jhota” (a hard taskmaster as a stubborn buffalo) and “paani ka badal” (one who brought water to the region), while Dharminder is son of Dal Singh’s younger brother Chander Bhan.

“Though Dharminder is my younger brother, he is letting himself being used in the hands of the Congress, which is known for its divide-and-rule politics,” Parminder told HT. He added that one could see how the Congress was thus dividing his family and the Jat community.

Dal Singh was a known Congress leader, who was first irrigation minister in 1966, besides remaining MLA four times from Jind and two times from Julana.

While Parminder lost three elections – twice on Congress ticket in 1991 and in 1996 and as an Independent in 2005, he won on the INLD ticket in 2009. He defeated Congress’ IG Sher Singh by a margin of over 12,000 votes.

Not only this, in the recent Lok Sabha elections, INLD candidate Padam Dahiya despite losing the seat got maximum votes – over 41,000 – from Julana, while the BJP’s Ramesh Kaushik who won the LS poll got about 33,900 votes and Congress’ Jagbir Malik bagged 23,000 votes.

Parminder says it was his uncle Chander Bhan who had fought against him in 1991 and 1996, though both of them had lost, while it was now his uncle’s son Dharminder contesting against him.

Dharminder, however, takes a jibe on the question of his fighting his brother. “It is wrong say that I am fighting against him, for, it is other way round,” said Dharminder, formerly an English lecturer at a college. “I have entered politics like my father for the sake of people and I am confident of win because of my clean image and overall development of the state that the Congress has ensured,” he said.

However, the entry of Arvind Sharma, former three-time MP (one time as Independent from Sonepat and two times on Congress ticket from Karnal), who had recently joined the Bahujan Samaj Party, has made the election more intense. He has been projected as the chief ministerial candidate for Haryana by BSP supremo Mayawati.

Stating that he left the Congress as it had failed to protect the interests of people of all communities and regions of the state, Sharma – who is also contesting from Yamunanagar assembly seat – said people of the state have seen through the dynastic and casteist politics in the state and want a change. “The voters in Julana are very enthusiastic for the change and have full faith in the BSP, which has established the best possible way of social engineering and inclusive growth,” he said.

Also in the fray and riding the Modi wave is BJP candidate Sanjeev Buwana, who is contesting an election for the first time. Buwana is chairman of the party’s block samiti.