Key contest: Fierce fight on cards as 2 former Haryana Cong chiefs cross swords in Sirsa
In what is seen as a bipolar contest between a party hopper and the BJP candidate Ashok Tanwar and the veteran Congress leader Selja, the electioneering here is revolving around Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Two former state presidents of the Congress, Kumari Selja and Ashok Tanwar, are engaged in a fierce electoral battle in the reserved Lok Sabha constituency of Sirsa.
In what is seen as a bipolar contest between a party hopper and the BJP candidate Ashok Tanwar and the veteran Congress leader Selja, the electioneering here is revolving around Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The five-time parliamentarian Selja is contesting from Sirsa after a gap of about two decades. In 2019, she had lost to the BJP’s Rattan Lal Kataria in Ambala.
Banking upon her father’s political legacy and her past tenure as the Sirsa MP, the Congress nominee is working to consolidate peasantry communities as farmer unions continue to hold protests against the electioneering of the BJP candidate.
Claiming there is a ‘Modi wave’ once again, Tanwar terms Selja as an ‘outsider’, she tells voters that it was in fact her ‘ghar vapsi’ and appeals for votes to strengthen the Congress against a decade-old ‘anti-people rule’ by the Modi government.
The Sirsa seat is spread over nine assembly constituencies spanning across the Bagri and Punjabi belts of Sirsa, Fatehabad and Jind districts.
Both leaders are holding 18-20 public meetings daily amid the rising temperature.
This time, the electoral ‘josh’ was missing in the villages as one could hardly spot any poster, flag or hoardings.
In the last elections, the BJP candidate Sunita Duggal was polled 52% but the saffron party chose to replace the incumbent MP with Tanwar to regain its electoral position among the various communities.
In his nukkar meetings across the constituencies, Tanwar is seeking votes in the name of the infrastructure development and policies to cater to the poor and farmers during the 10-year regime under Modi.
His speeches begin with ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and the saffron party’s nominee talks about the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, abrogation of Article 370 to say that the BJP fulfils the promises.
As the temperature touched 46 degrees Celsius at around 2 pm, the BJP’s Tanwar, who had won the Sirsa seat on the Congress ticket in 2009, was seen facing more heat from the regular protests by farmer unions.
Sirsa is the home district of Chautalas but after a division in the family, their political influence has eroded significantly and the Congress hopes to consolidate the support of the Jats to corner the BJP in a nail-biting contest.
As he reached Vaidwala village with the party supporters on a tractor, a team of police personnel had cordoned off the dharamshala to foil any attempt to disrupt the election meeting.
The officials said heavy police deployment at each of the BJP’s political meetings is a regular exercise in the constituency.
Before the arrival of Tanwar’s convoy, cops took a group of about 5-6 protesters to a shop and put the shutter down to avoid any scuffle.
Tanwar speaks at length about the achievements of the ‘Modi sarkar’ and the PM’s commitment to ‘sabka sath, sabka vikas’.
Opening up of agro-based units are on his agenda for holistic growth of the underdeveloped agrarian belt is among Tanwar’s agenda for the area.
Tanwar echoes the slogan of governance under the ‘double engine’ model and said the BJP government in Haryana provided government jobs ‘bina parchi, bina kharchi’.
When asked about the anger expressed by the protesting farmers, Tanwar termed these agitations sponsored by the opposition parties.
“MSP under the Modi government has increased every year and the marginalised sections are supported with foodgrains. Performance of the Union government can be gauged from the road network, airports, ports and digital revolution that is creating job sectors,” he added.
On the tag of being a party hopper, the ex-MP said after quitting Congress, he was looking for an appropriate political platform to pursue public life.
“Unlike my former colleague (referring to Selja), I never left the constituency and remained active on the ground,” added Tanwar.
At an election meeting at Panniwala Mota, part of the Rania assembly segment, Selja was escorted to the village by a convoy of youth party supporters riding motorbikes.
Villagers from all age groups address her ‘behan ji’ and she responds to each greeting and asks if the rural youth are getting jobs and the poor getting houses as committed by the government.
In her address, she recalls that during her maiden parliamentary election stint in 1991, residents of Panniwala Mota had welcomed her with a ‘chunri’ stitched with currency notes.
“Sirsa is my home and I may have been anywhere but I always stayed in touch with my people. I was always deeply associated with Sirsa. Chhatis biradari naraz hain iss sarkar se. Ab ki baar yey chunav aapne ladna hai aur Modi sarkar to hatana hai,” she appealed to the voters.
Selja’s father Chaudhary Dalbir Singh represented the Sirsa Lok Sabha seat on four occasions- 1967, 1971, 1980 and 1984. Banking upon her late father’s mass popularity, Selja won the seat twice in 1991 and 1996 before she sifted her electoral base to Ambala’s seat.
At Khai Shergarh, she highlighted resentment among the Haryanvi youth against Agniveer scheme in the Indian army.
“Modi Sarkar wants the youth to serve the fauj only for four years and then apply to become security guards. The BJP government is against the agrarian community and it is evident that farmers are not being allowed to march in New Delhi in support of their demands. Unemployment is at its peak under the Modi regime. Aisi sarkar ko girana hee hai,” she appeals.
Her convoy halts at Bhagsar village where she shakes hands with the veiled women in their traditional Bagri attire. She gladly accepts the bananas offered by a party sympathiser.
Travelling with senior party leader Dr KV Singh, Selja admits factionalism in the state Congress but terms it a ‘common’ factor.
On the forthcoming state assembly elections, Selja quickly says she would play a role in it. “It depends upon the party what role will be given to me but I will definitely be there,” she adds.
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