Gurugram polls: A crucial seat with a constantly evolving voter roll

Gurugram: Gurugram has evolved and developed over the years and so has its democracy. In 1967, then Gurgaon in a newly carved state of Haryana, there were only 51,000 registered voters. In over fifty years the number of voters has increased seven times to 3.5 lakh. Gurugram has been the stronghold of Congress party that has won this seat for six out of twelve times the assembly elections have been held in the city.

Interestingly in the first elections that were held in Gurgaon then in 1967 was won by a candidate from Jan Sangh, a political organisation which ultimately gave way to BJP. Thakran defeated his rival Kanhaiya Lal from Congress.

In the coming years, the grand old party of India was able to win the Gurgaon seat in the years 1968, 1972,1982,1991, 1996 and 2005. Dharambir Gaba and Rao Mahabeer Singh are the two most successful leaders from Congress. While Gaba won the Gurugram seat four times, Rao Mahabeer had won the seat two times.

For long, the BJP did not have a stronghold in Haryana but Gurugram was one seat that had always given high vote percentage to the saffron party. Seven years after it was formed Sitaram Singla won the Gurugram seat in 1987. It was only 27 years after that BJP then was able to win the Gururgam seat when Umesh Aggarwal became the MLA in 2014 after winning with a huge margin of 1.6 lakh votes.

Even though Gurugram traditionally favoured only national parties there have been also occasions when candidates from the regional parties have also won the prominent South Haryana seat. Gopi Chand Gehlot, who then represented the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), won the seat in 1999.

Gehlot now has left INLD and joined BJP and there is a likelihood that he is also being considered to represent the saffron party in the upcomng polls. In 2009 Sukhbir Kataria who is a prominent Congress leader fought the elections as an independent and won the seat.

Having witnessed exponential development over the years, Gururgam now is being considered as the most important seat to be won for the Assembly elections. The significance of Gururgam seat can be gauged from the fact that as many as 14 candidates are in the fray from BJP to be projected as their next MLA candidate.