The Hisar Lok Sabha seat on Sunday will witness an gripping fight of supremacy among Haryana's three bigwig political dynasties -- two belonging to the fourth generation and one to the third.
Sitting Member of Parliament Dushyant Chautala, the great grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, is taking on bureaucrat-turned-politician Bijendra Singh, the great grandson of popular Haryana leader Sir Chhotu Ram, and greenhorn Bhavya Bishnoi, the grandson of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal.
While Bijendra is 46 years old, Dushyant is 31 and Bhavya 26. All three are multi-millionaires and highly educated, as per their election affidavit and declarations.
While Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Bijendra Singh, son of Union Minister for Steel Birender Singh, quit the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) just ahead of the polls; Congress candidate Bhavya is son of Kuldeep Bishnoi who lost this seat in 2014 as a Haryana Janhit Congress candidate.
Birender Singh had joined the BJP in 2014 after leading a revolt against then Congress Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. His wife Prem Lata is a BJP legislator from the Uchana Kalan assembly constituency in the Jind district.
Dushyant, who won the 2014 elections as the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate, is now representing the newly formed Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which has a poll alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state.
Dushyant, the youngest MP in the outgoing Lok Sabha, parted ways with the INLD in December 2018 after a bitter split in the party and the Chautala family.
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Dushyant's father, Ajay Singh Chautala, is the elder son of INLD president and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, is contesting his first Lok Sabha elections after floating his own party.
The results would be a semi-final for the future of his JJP as the Assembly elections are due later this year, political experts told IANS.
The entry of Bhavya in the fray has made the contest interesting. He will most likely attract non-Jat voters as both his immediate rivals are Jats.
"There was no pressure on me to join politics. I took a call to become a politician," Bhavya told IANS. If elected, he would like to work for sportspersons and allow them better opportunities to hone their talent, Bhavya said.
As per the caste mathematics, Jats are the dominant group and account for one-third of the total votes. Scheduled Caste voters number 23.66 per cent in the Hisar Lok Sabha seat that has nine Assembly constituencies.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the battle turned into a high-profile Jat-versus-non-Jat fight with 41 candidates in the fray, the highest in the state's 10 seats. The voter turnout was 76.23 per cent.
In 2014, Dushyant (then INLD) received 494,478 votes (32 per cent), Kuldeep Bishnoi (Haryana Janhit Congress) 462,631 votes (30 per cent) and Sampat Singh 102,509 (6 per cent) votes.
In 2009 and the 2011 by-elections, the Hisar seat was won by non-Jat candidates Bhajan Lal and Kuldeep Bishnoi, respectively, indicating a divide among Jats.
The constituency boasts literacy rate of 72.22 per cent.
(Vishal Gulati can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)
--IANS
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