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Pehowa assembly: BJP banks on sportsman to break INLD, Cong citadel

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Press Trust of India Pehowa (Har)
Last Updated : Oct 09 2019 | 12:16 PM IST

The ruling BJP is banking on former Indian hockey captain Sandeep Singh, once popular for his drag flicks, to make inroads into the Pehowa assembly constituency, considered a pocket borough of the Indian National Lok Dal and the Congress.

A political greenhorn, Sandeep Singh is on an altogether different field with the BJP heavily relying on him to dent the citadel of INLD and Congress.

The BJP has never won the constituency. The Congress had won the seat five times since 1967 while the INLD has won it twice.

Pehowa was the only constituency in Kurukshetra district that the BJP lost in the 2014 assembly election. INLD candidate Jaswinder Sandhu defeated BJP's Jai Bhagwan Sharma by 9,347 votes. Congress candidate Mandeep Singh Chatha, son of former finance minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha, finished third.

Harmohinder Chatha had represented the constituency for two consecutive terms.

The split in INLD and the death of the sitting MLA Sandhu in January this year have made things difficult for the party. And the Congress will try to regain its lost bastion.

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But the political battle appears to be a straight fight between Sandeep Singh (BJP) and Mandeep Chatha (Congress).

Sandeep Singh, 33, who was paralysed and was on wheelchair for two years after accidentally being hit by a gunshot in a train in 2006, owes it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for entering the fray as he is "inspired" by the works done by the PM.

"I want to serve the nation... First I did it by playing for the country and now for the people of Pehowa," Sandeep says, appearing confident to take on his opponents.

"In my life, I had faced umpteen challenges. My morale is high and we will win from this seat for sure," he says.

Every morning, he says, he wants to do something good for the people and the country.

Though Sandeep Singh has star attraction, the hurdle in his path to success is BJP rebel Swami Sandeep Onkar. Besides, the opposition terms him a "parachute candidate".

"A player is not for a single assembly seat, but of the entire country," Sandeep Singh says, adding, "The BJP is fighting for the seat like a family and in unison."

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First Published: Oct 09 2019 | 12:16 PM IST

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