INLD, BJP name candidates; many claimants for Cong nomination

While the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has fielded its sitting MLA Dilbag Singh from Yamunanagar assembly constituency for the October-15 assembly poll, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has named Ghanshyam Dass Arora. For the Congress ticket, there are many claimants.

Yamunanagar holds political import as it gave Haryana its first chief minister, Pt Bhagwat Dayal Sharma. Also, it is only second time that Yamunanagar has had an INLD MLA, as in the past either the Congress or BJP won the seat. No MLA has won this seat two consecutive times.

It was in 2002 that in a first for the INLD, its candidate Malik Chand Gambhir won the byelection to Yamunanagar seat that was necessitated after the death of JP Sharma of the Congress. Sharma’s widow Krishna Pandit finished third in byelection, while BJP’s candidate Ghanshyam Dass Arora lost his security deposit.

However, in the 2005 assembly election, Pandit, who is also a probable this time, won the election by margin of over 24,000 votes. BJP’s Arora finished second with about 22,000 votes while INLD’s Sahib Singh came third by bagging about 18,000 votes.

In the 2009 assembly poll, INLD’s Dilbag Singh, who garnered over 46,000 votes, defeated Congress’ Devinder Chawla who polled nearly 33,000 votes, pushing BJP’s Arora to third position with just about 15,000 votes. However, Arora is hopeful for good showing this time as in the recent Lok Sabha election, BJP’s Rattan Lal Kataria mustered more 82,000 votes from Yamunanagar segment, Congress’ Rajkumar Balmiki got over 26,000 votes and INLD’s Kusum Sherwal bagged about 16,000 votes.

Apart from Pandit, Satpal Kaushik, who had also been Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) general secretary though he has not contested any election, is also eyeing Congress ticket. Also in the race is Raj Kumar Tyagi, who was actively involved with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) but was taken into the Congress fold by chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here recently.