Gurugram: Neck-to-neck contest for BJP, Congress nominees in Pataudi

Gurugram: The highway to Pataudi is filled with fresh smell of hot bitumen being rolled as the Pataudi-Bilaspur Road is being resurfaced with hardly a week left to state assembly election polls scheduled on October 5.

However, this newly paved road or the under-construction Gurugram Pataudi Highway being constructed by the NHAI is no guarantee that BJP will win the Pataudi assembly seat like the previous election.

The voters in Pataudi and political players are anticipating a tough contest between BJP’s Bimla Chaudhary and Congress’s Pearl Chaudhary.

While Pearl comes from a political family as her father Bhupender Chaudhary was a Congress MLA from 2004 to 2009, Bimla has been a long-time political worker and one of the strongest supporters of sitting MP Rao Inderjit Singh. She was the MLA from Pataudi from 2014 to 2019.

Pataudi has long been considered the political fiefdom of sitting MP Rao Inderjit Singh, who has a considerable heft in the constituency due to the presence of around 80,000 Ahir votes in a reserved constituency. However, locals are of the the opinion that the strong anti-incumbency against BJP government across Haryana and leaning of Jat and SC voters towards the Congress would make the fight difficult for BJP’s Bimla Chaudhary, who does have an edge but fight is going to be difficult.

There are around 2.53 lakh voters in the Pataudi constituency which is a reserved seat for scheduled caste candidates.

Raj Kumar Rathi (name changed), a resident of Rathiwas village, one of the largest villages in the constituency says that fight is going to be tough between Congress and BJP candidates. “There are around 21,000 Jat voters in Pataudi and 50,000 scheduled caste voters, who are most likely to vote for Congress. There are also voters from other communities including Yadavs who have decided to vote for Congress,” he said.

As per the rough estimates of different parties, the caste composition of voters in Pataudi 80000 Yadav, 65000 scheduled castes, 21,000 from Jat community, 18000 voters of Rajput community, 12000 Brahmin voters, 8000 to 10000 votes of Saini community and there are around 5000 Muslim voters in the constituency. There is also a sprinkling of Gujjars, Sikhs, and Vaishya voters on the constituency.

No doubt BJP has had an edge in the Pataudi constituency but locals said that there is a strong anti-incumbency in the area as several development works have been delayed, the local populace is unhappy due to too much focus on digital and portal based governance by the current dispensation, which failed to click with the largely rural population.

Vinod Kumar Channa, resident of Pataudi said the there are several pockets or villages in Pataudi constituency where voters may lean towards Congress with expectation of infrastructural development.

“Bhora Kalan is one such village where there are about 12000 voters. They have been long demanding the completion the construction of the Bilaspur flyover connecting Rewari to Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway which is pending after reaching its final leg for years,” he said.

“They had approached the outgoing MLA numerous times but he had been of no help. The completion of the same flyover is among the top of the election manifesto of the BJP candidate this time as it will provide them easy transportation and increase the property rates of the residents exponentially once commissioned,” he said.

In order to neutralize the anti-incumbency and to ensure that Yadav voters may gravitate overwhelmingly towards the saffron party, the BJP gave the mandate to Bimla Chaudhary preferring her on place of sitting MLA Satya Prakash Jarawta.

A key factor, which has made the election even more interesting is the fact that disaffected political aspirants from the BJP are helping the Congress candidate while those who were denied the ticket by Congress are helping the other side. “Aspirants from both sides are helping the other side, which has made the election interesting. In the last 10 days, the contest has become more even,” said Rathi, adding that the winning margin will not be more than 10,000.

GL Sharma, who recently left the BJP and joined Congress said that contest is even in Badhshapur with Congress likely to get votes from all communities, who want a change. “The Yadavs have maximum voters in Pataudi but even they are swaying towards the Congress,” he said.

Taking into account the caste arithmetic, anti-incumbency and local factors in account the Congress workers and party functionaries expressed confidence that they will win the seat.

Shashi Sharma, a congress supporter involved in election campaigning and monitoring the developments at their candidate’s office in Pataudi said, said they expect a neck-to-neck fight with BJP candidate this time.

“Our calculations reflects that the winning margin will remain below 20000 votes. With almost a week to go, the campaigning is already at this peak and we will further approach as much voters as we could by intensifying it,” he said adding that their candidate may be new but everyone in the area knows her as her father, the former MLA from Pataudi, was of a clean image and had worked tirelessly for the area’s development during his tenure from 2004 to 2009.

Yash Chaudhary, Pearl’s brother, said education, health and infrastructure development in top of their manifesto. “We will work tirelessly for the residents of the area,” he said.

The BJP supporters, however, opine that Bimla Chaudhary has a strong edge as majority of Yadavs, who are supporters of Rao Inderjit Singh will decide the fate of this constituency..

Manoj Yadav, a BJP worker at Bimla Chaudhary’s office said that none of the villagers had ever seen the Congress candidates.

“Our candidate has always been connected to everyone in the constituency may it be a tough time in any family. The Congress candidate had never been seen until she got the ticket,” he said.

Surender Yadav, another BJP supporter, said Bimla will take up all the works which could not be completed during the tenure of our earlier MLA.

“Our election campaign has been receiving a very strong support from the people and we have assured them that all pending works such as setting up of a college, a large government hospital, construction of remaining Pataudi bypass will be constructed on priority,” said Ravi Chaudhary, son of the BJP candidate from Pataudi.