Haryana polls: All eyes on rebels as BJP, Congress lock horns

Chandigarh: Even though it is seen to be a direct contest between the ruling BJP and the main opposition Congress at most of the seats in Haryana, it is their rebels fighting as independents who are posing a major threat to the party candidates in several segments in the 90-member state assembly elections.

While the BJP is fighting this election for the third consecutive term, the Congress is contesting to return to power after 10 years.

While the saffron party had about 30 leaders who turned rebel after being denied the party ticket, the Congress had about 20 such dissenters. Though the two parties succeeded in placating some of them, there remained several in the fray with their resolve to fight against the party nominees, besides others.

The most prominent among the BJP rebels is Savitri Jindal, chairperson of Jindal Group and the richest woman of the country, from Hisar; she is fighting the party’s two-time sitting MLA and minister Kamal Gupta and has a shot at winning the seat.

In Ganaur, the BJP nominee Devender Kaushik, has been taken on by the party rebel Devender Kadyan, while in Rania, the party’s former power minister Ranjit Chautala is contesting as an independent after being denied the ticket. A former two-time minister and a former Rajya Sabha member, Ranjit appears to have a strong standing in the fray.

In Gurugram, party rebel Naveen Goyal is giving a tough fight to the party nominee, while in Safidon, BJP’s Ram Kumar Gautam faces a rebel, Bachan Singh Arya, who can upset the poll maths for all the candidates.

In Assandh and Sohna, BJP rebels Zile Ram Sharma and Kalyan Chauhan, respectively, have made the situation uncomfortable for the party candidates. Likewise, a BJP rebel namely Kehar Singh Rawat has the potential to dent the vote banks of his rivals.

The situation in the Congress camp is no different with there also being several rebels who have the potential to either win or majorly upset the poll equations of other candidates including their own party nominees; Congress rebel Neetu Maan in Prithla, Sudheer Chaudhary in Pataudi and Pradeep Gill in Jind are set to split the votes of Congress candidates.

An interesting fight is also unfolding in the Ambala Cantt seat where Congress rebel Chitra Sarwara is fighting against party nominee Parvinder Singh Pari and is set to split party votes which would favour BJP’s senior most six-time MLA Anil Vij and make his standing stronger. She had also fought against Vij in 2019 as an independent, but she was defeated by a margin of about 20,000 votes and finished second.

Some of the other rebels posing a daunting challenge to the party candidates include Anita Dhull in Kalayat, Satvir Bhana in Pundri, Naresh Dhand in Gulha Chika, Pardeep Gill, Jind, Vijay Jain, Panipat (rural), Rohita Revri, Panipat (urban), Lalit Nagar, Tigaon, Rajesh Joon, Bahadurgarh, Kapur Narwal, Baroda, Sharda Rathore, Ballabhgarh, Virender Gogria, Uchana and Rajkumar Balmiki in Nilokheri constituency.