Winning Jind by-poll a matter of prestige for all

Jind (Haryana): With Congress's national media head Randeep Surjewala, a sitting legislator from Kaithal, in the fray, the bypoll of Jind assembly constituency has become a matter of prestige for all the major political parties.

As per local residents of Jind, the Congress, which was nowhere in the race, has turned this byelection into a triangular fight. The other two players in the contest are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Krishan Midda and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidate Digvijay Chautala, who is the son of Ajay Chautala and grandson of former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala.

Interestingly, in this bypoll national issues are irrelevant as every party is trying to cash in on local issues such as availability of drinking water, quality of education, well-connected roads, availability of doctors in government hospitals, etc. The voting of the bypoll is on January 28 and results would be declared on January 31.

Winning Jind byelection is also important for every party as the result of this bypoll may impact the fortune of many politicians as well as the result would give an indication about the way Haryana would vote during upcoming Lok Sabha elections and subsequently in the assembly elections too, which is due in October.

The result of Jind bypoll has become a matter of prestige for BJP as the clout of Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, who switched from Congress to BJP, is also on the test. In terms of vote share, the constituency which has about 1,69,000 voters is divided into two parts — Jat and non-Jat. Besides Midda, other candidates – Surjewala and Chautala — represent Jat community, while Midda, who represents Punjabi community, is banking on anti-Jat consolidation in the state. The other Jat candidate in the fray is Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate Umed Redhu.

As per locals, the assembly has over 45,000 Jat voters and it would get divided among all three Jat candidates. Given that Surjewala is promising to emulate the Kaithal development model in Jind, a majority of Jat voters may support him for the betterment of the area.

The other factor that may go in favour of Surjewala is support of local Jat strongman Jai Prakash and his son Vikash Saharan, seeking Congress ticket, is campaigning for Surjewala.

In reply to a question on development works in Jind, Shekhar Khatkar, a local resident said, "Khattar had promised an Atal Park in Jind Sector 10 during his electioneering. He had said that the work will begin within 24 hours of him taking over the charge. It's over 4 years and work has not started yet."

The bypoll has also brought together the Congress rank as party's top leaders, including former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state party president Ashok Tawar, late CM Bhajan Lal's son Kuldeep Bishnoi, CLP leader Kiran Choudhary and party MP Kumari Selja have taken to the streets to ensure Surjewala's victory.

Surjewala who is a favourite amongst all the castes in his Kaithal assembly has been to Jind electorates reminding the voters that he was born in Jind and cherished his childhood here hence should be given a fair chance in this election. During his campaign, the supporters have projected "the padha-likha Surjewala" the future chief ministerial candidate and would change the destiny of Jind. In Congress, it is said Surjewala would also be a candidate from either Sonepat or Kurukshetra Lok Sabha

this 2019.