Just 11 women candidates are in the fray for the May 12 Lok Sabha polls in Haryana and two of them are locked in the contest for the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency.
Forty-three-year-old Shruti Choudhry of the Congress is the granddaughter of former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal and daughter of sitting Congress MLA from Tosham Kiran Choudhary. The other is JJP-AAP candidate Swati Yadav (30), an electrical engineer-turned-politician, who pursued her higher studies in the US.
They take on Bharatiya Janata Party's sitting MP Dharambir Singh, who had won the 2014 general election, defeating his nearest rival Bahadur Singh of the INLD by a margin of over 1.29 lakh votes while Choudhry had finished third.
In the 53 years of its existence, Haryana has elected only five women MPs and in the 2014 general elections, not even a single woman candidate could manage to win in the state known for its skewed gender ratio.
Although, no women candidates contesting independently in the state have ever made it to the lower house of parliament, this time, seven of the 11 female candidates are independents.
With campaigning for the sixth phase ending on May 10 and the constituency along with other nine seats of Haryana going to polls on May 12, the candidates have stepped up their efforts to woo the voters.
Choudhry, is banking on the development plank, while Yadav has promised to "transform" the lives of the people even as the sitting BJP MP is seeking votes on the issue of nationalism.
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Targeting Singh, Choudhry, who has been holding small meetings in villages while addressing bigger gatherings in urban pockets, claimed that the sitting MP "failed to bring any big project" to the constituency while reminding people about the welfare projects initiated during her tenure as an MP earlier.
"We brought this constituency under the National Capital Region and provided water to villages," claimed Choudhry who had defeated Ajay Singh Chautala of the INLD in the 2009 Lok Sabha election from the constituency.
"Many educational and health projects were started during the Congress regime. The development has come to a halt during the BJP's tenure," she claimed.
She sought the support of the people by invoking her family legacy, telling them that they had always supported Bansi Lal and her father Surender Singh.
Her campaign got a boost when Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressed a rally here on Monday and launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was a "boxer" who entered the ring to fight various issues, but ended up punching his "coach" and veteran BJP leader L K Advani.
On the other hand, Yadav, the Jannayak Janta Party-Aam Aadmi Party alliance candidate who left her job to enter politics, said she wants to bring a change in the lives of the people.
"I was in the US for 10 years. I studied there but decided to return as I wanted to serve the people. I want to transform their lives and bring a change," she says.
Maintaining that she had been getting good response from the people of the constituency, she claimed that women and youth were connecting with her.
She said that she advises people to vote carefully as the sitting MP is seeking votes in the name of Modi while Choudhry is invoking the legacy of Bansi Lal.
Meanwhile, Singh, who had switched over to the BJP from the Congress ahead of the last general elections, is highlighting the Balakot air strikes and reminding people how the Modi government gave a befitting reply to Pakistan.
While campaigning, he is also listing the "achievements" of the Union and the state governments, claiming that the Manohar Lal Khattar government gave jobs to people on merit and ensured all-round development.
The Bhiwani-Mahendragarh parliamentary constituency was created in 2008 on recommendations of the Delimitation Commission by merging four assembly segments of Ateli, Mahendragarh, Narnaul and Nangal Chaudhry of the erstwhile Mahendragarh constituency and five assembly segments of Loharu, Badhra, Dadri, Bhiwani and Tosham of the former Bhiwani and Charkhi Dadri constituency.
Of 16.54 lakh voters, the Jat community, to which the Congress and BJP candidates belong, has over 3 lakh votes. Yadavs come second followed by Brahmins, Gurjars and Punjabis.
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