All eyes set on Sunday as Cong rebels flex muscles

Time is ticking out as all eyes seem anxiously glued on one day - the approaching Sunday - when two Congress rebels will hold rallies. Former Congress strongman Venod Sharma holds a rally (read mahayagna) at Kurukshetra and chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) Dharambir Singh holds a rally (read dharmsena rally) at Bhiwani.

Sharma, who has already said bye and good riddance to his 40-year-old ties with the Congress, has been parroting that he would announce his decision as to which party to join - BJP or HJC - on March 9. That the both the parties have distanced themselves from him, though for the time being, has made the political circus all the more dramatic.

The CPS and 4-time MLA Dharambir Singh has also made it clear that he wants to contest the coming Lok Sabha elections from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat. He has also already been going ahead with his 'rath yatra' of the constituency from Dadri town of the district, and has been giving clear indications that he was exploring options in other parties as well.

Admitting that he had applied for the Congress ticket to contest the coming Lok Sabha elections from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh constituency, he had been publicly saying that since he was yet to get a reply from party leadership, he would open his cards after covering the constituency on March 9 when the 'rath-yatra' would culminate at Bhiwani, which has sitting Congress MP Shruti Choudhry.

Since Bhiwani, which is dominated by Jat and Yadav votes alike, thus has had two aspirants, the troubles seem in store for the Congress leadership, for, Singh could turn the tables for Congress if he sides with BJP-HJC combine. Being a Jat leader in the area, he gets community votes besides the votes of Yadavs as he gets the support of 4-time sitting MP Rao Inderjit (Gurgaon), who has recently shaken hands with BJP.

This cannot be said for INLD with certainty though as he was given ticket to politics in 1987 by the then Janata Dal headed by Devi Lal and his son Om Prakash Chautala and made forest minister, though he changed loyalty in the next assembly election in 2000.