The prestige of political heavyweights, including Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Bhajan Lal and Om Prakash Chautala, is at stake when Haryana goes to polls on May 7.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda made it a matter of personal honour to get party ticket to one of his loyalist MLA Jitender Malik from Sonepat constituency, despite strong claim for the seat made by senior Congress leader and State Finance Minister Birender Singh.
Besides, Hooda's son Deepinder Singh is also contesting elections from Rohtak constituency, from where he got a re-nomination. Deepinder is up against INLD's Nafe Singh Rathi.
The political fortunes of seventy-eight-year-old veteran leader Bhajan Lal is also at stake as he has decided to jump into the poll fray from Hisar parliamentary constituency.
Bhajan Lal is contesting as the candidate of Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), which his son and former Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi had floated over two years back.
Lal, who is at present the only surviving Lal among three famous Lal's of Haryana--the other two being Devi Lal and Bansi Lal--is for the first time fighting the LS polls under a non-Congress banner and is up against Congress' sitting MP Jai Prakash and INLD's Sampat Singh.
INLD president and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala's reputation as popular leader is also going to be tested in the LS polls. His son Ajay Chautala, who is at present a Rajya Sabha member, is contesting from the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh constituency.
Ajay Chautala is locked in an interesting battle with young Shruti Choudhry, grand daughter of late Bansi Lal and daughter of Haryana's Tourism Minister Kiran Choudhry.
It may be difficult for the ruling Congress in Haryana to repeat the feat of 2004 Parliamentary elections when it had won nine out of 10 Lok Sabha seats.Besides, it is also seen as a semi-final as it is likely to impact the state assembly polls due early next year.
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Another old warhorse in the fray this time is BJP's I D Swami from Karnal constituency who would fight electoral battle against the sitting Congress MP Arvind Sharma.
In Gurgaon, Union Minister of State Rao Inderjit Singh is locked in a battle with BJP's Sudha Yadav and BSP's Zakir Hussain. Zakir is son of respected Muslim leader of the region late Tayyib Hussain.
With Gurgaon being carved out as new parliamentary seat after the delimitation process, about one-fourth of the voters in the constituency are Muslims, of which BSP candidate can get some advantage, political observers feel.
From Ambala reserve constituency, Congress has banked upon its sitting MP and Union Minister Selja, who will be facing BJP's Rattan Lal Kataria, whom she defeated last time.
From Sirsa, the second reserve seat in the state, Congress has fielded its young leader Indian Youth Congress president Ashok Tanwar, who is up against INLD's sitting MLA Sita Ram.
Similarly, Congress has fielded young industrialist and sitting MP Navin Jindal in Kurukshetra against INLD's state president Ashok Arora.
In Faridabad, sitting Congress MP Avtar Singh Bhadana is pitted against Ram Chander Bainda of the BJP while former cricketer Chetan Sharma is contesting from the seat on BSP ticket.
Both BSP and HJC have fielded their candidates on all the 10 seats in Haryana.