Chandigarh, Oct 7 (Inditop.com) The ruling Congress in Haryana may be eyeing a win in the Oct 13 assembly elections but some of its top leaders, including ministers, may not find the going easy.
The Congress won nine out of the 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana in May this year and led in 59 assembly segments out of the total 90.
Despite the Congress gains, the party trailed in some assembly segments now being contested by some of the party’s leading lights.
This includes the Uchana Kalan assembly segment in Jind district where the Congress trailed by over 24,500 votes. The contestant here is Finance Minister Birender Singh.
Birender Singh, whose desire to be Haryana’s chief minister is known, may find the going tough.
This is because the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) led in Uchana Kalan. INLD president and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala has chosen it as one of two constituencies from where he is contesting.
Another assembly segment where the Congress trailed in May was Hisar, now being contested by Savitri Jindal, a minister in the Hooda government.
Being part of the multi-billion Jindal Steel group family and mother of young Congress MP Naveen Jindal, Savitri Jindal will have to work hard to recover the votes the Congress lost to the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).
Hisar is the home district of HJC leaders Bhajan Lal, a former chief minister, and Kuldeep Bishnoi.
In Kalka, earlier represented by controversial deputy chief minister Chander Mohan, the Congress trailed by over 7,300 votes in May. Though Chander Mohan has been denied the Congress ticket, the new party candidate, Satvinder Rana, will have to recover lost ground.
Haryana Congress president and former minister Phool Chand Mullana is on a sticky wicket in the Mullana (reserved) constituency. The Congress finished a poor third here in May – behind the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Haryana Cooperation Minister Meena Mandal has been fielded from the Nilokheri (reserved) constituency, where the party trailed to the BSP by nearly 13,000 votes in May.
Education Minister Mange Ram Gupta is contesting from Jind, where the Congress trailed by over 3,300 votes to the BJP in May.
In Narwana, the Congress trailed behind the INLD by over 15,000 votes. This seat was represented in the previous assembly by Power Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, who worsted Chautala in 2005 in a high-profile election.
Surjewala has now shifted to adjoining Kaithal, earlier represented by his father Shamsher Singh Surjewala.
At Adampur in Hisar district, the HJC led confortably in the May electionsfrom by over 14,300 votes. HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi will face former Congress MP Jai Prakash here.
In the Nalwa assembly constituency in Hisar district, former finance minister Sampat Singh, who has switched from the INLD to the Congress, faces a tough challenge from Jasma Devi of the HJC, wife of Bhajan Lal and mother of Bishnoi. The HJC had led here in May by over 8,500 votes.
The biggest victory margins for the Congress in May came from Chief Minister Hooda’s home district, Rohtak. In Hooda’s assembly segment, Garhi Sampla-Kiloi, the Congress led by over 77,800 votes and in other segments too the margins were 40,000 votes and above.
Hooda’s son, Deepinder Singh, won the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat by over 445,000 votes.
