With BJP not in race, HLP chief Gopal Kanda locked in direct fight with Congress from Sirsa

Sirsa: With the BJP not contesting from Sirsa, the seat has become a direct contest between the Congress and Gopal Kanda's HLP, which had been supporting the NDA in Haryana for the last five years.

Sirsa is the only constituency in the 90-seat Haryana assembly where the ruling BJP has not fielded its candidate, with the Congress alleging that it has been done to offer indirect support to Kanda.

The INLD, which is contesting the elections against the BJP and Congress in the state, has also not fielded any candidate from the seat and has extended its support to Kanda, the sitting MLA.

Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala even campaigned for Kanda in the constituency.

All of this has left the Congress saying that the Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) leader is misleading voters by claiming to have INLD's support while also "openly backing the BJP".

On September 16, BJP's Sirsa candidate Rohtash Jangra withdrew his nomination for the seat, which was seen as a move to avoid a split of anti-Congress votes by extending tacit support to Kanda from the seat.

Congress has fielded 36-year-old Gokul Setia, who had contested as an Independent against Kanda in the 2019 assembly elections and lost by 602 votes.

"BJP has not so far said why they withdrew their candidate while Gopal Kanda until recently had maintained that he is part of NDA. Now, INLD is extending support to him," Setia said.

"...Kanda displays a BJP flag atop his mansion here. People are not fools. They can clearly see which parties are contesting against each other and which are hand-in-glove behind the curtains," Setia said.

Notably, Kanda has previously extended support to the Congress government after winning from Sirsa as an independent in 2009. He was the minister of state for home in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government. But he resigned in the wake of the Geetika Sharma suicide case in 2012. Kanda was acquitted by a Delhi court in the abetment of suicide case in 2023.

While there are 11 more candidates in the fray, the main contest in Sirsa is seen to be between HLP and Congress. Haryana goes to polls on October 5 while the results will be declared on October 8.

With just a few days left for the polling day, both Kanda and Setia have been extensively campaigning in the constituency.

Kanda has promised to bring industries to Sirsa, which will help generate jobs for the youth.

At a campaign event, Kanda underlined his work for the constituency and said that during the coronavirus pandemic, he had set up a 150-bed hospital here in less than fifteen days.

"People of Sirsa know that both me and my brother Gobind always stand by them. Our only aim is Sirsa's development and to serve people," Kanda said.

Setia, addressing a gathering in Ding village, said that all parties have joined hands against the Congress party and are pursuing their "selfish politics", but the people have made up their minds to vote for Congress.

"We don't have a multi-speciality hospital here, clean drinking water is not available everywhere, drug issue is a big problem here," Setia said.

Setia said that Congress will form the next government and he is getting a lot of love and support from people here.

"The kind of support I am getting from people has caused those living in palaces to lose sleep," said Setia in reference to Kanda.