Kartikeya’s win shot in the arm for Venod Sharma

PERFECT ELECTION ENGINEERING, THE BACKING OF BJP-JJP MLAS AND A CROSS-VOTE HELPED SHARMA CLINCH A CHANCE IN ACTIVE POLITICS

AMBALA : Venod Sharma, 73, must have stumped many with his silent entry into the parliamentary elections with the lastminute nomination of his younger son, Kartikeya Sharma, 41, for the Rajya Sabha seat as an Independent candidate from Haryana, who eventually won in a dramatic overnight drama.

Perfect election engineering, the backing of BJP-JJP MLAs and a cross-vote helped Sharma clinch a chance in active politics, more than a year after his wife, Shakti Rani Sharma, was elected as mayor of the Ambala Municipal Corporation.

Popularly known as Pandit ji among local journalists, the former Congressman showed how he ensured Shakti Rani’s win in 2020 despite being inactive in state politics after losing the assembly elections under his outfit, the Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJCP).

Kartikeya’s win has come as a shot in the arm for Sharma, who is looking to expand his political fortunes mostly after his elder son, Siddharth Vashishth, alias Manu Sharma, 45, convicted in the Jessica Lal murder case of 1999, walked out of Delhi’s Tihar Jail in June 2020. Months to go for the municipal elections, Manu had then played an important role in his mother’s win, mostly remaining in the background in his father’s shadow.

Balancing act by Sharma clan

At one time, there was apprehension that the Sharma clan might give a tough fight in the civic body elections in state home minister Anil Vij’s constituency, but now with the MC polls postponed in Ambala due to court case, both sides get more time. It remains to be seen if Sharma merges his HJCP with the BJP. Sharma and his wife had unsuccessfully contested under their political front from Ambala City and Kalka constituencies in 2014, after Venod quit the Congress before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The party remained inactive in the 2019 assembly elections with both deciding not to contest, but at the last moment support to BJP candidate Aseem Goel against another former congressman Nirmal Singh led to his victory, political analysts had said.

Gaining ground in rural belt

Before the 2020 municipal elections, there were strong rumours of Sharma joining the saffron party with officials confirming off the record, but he didn’t, for reasons best known to him. However, he avoided political commentary against the ruling government during the farmers’ protest even after winning the mayor’s seat and despite his party gaining most of the rural belt wards over the BJP.

“If he wanted to join the BJP, he could have easily done that after winning the elections, but he didn’t. In the MC house meetings, the party gives nightmares to the BJP. There are at least two years for the next assembly elections and I don’t think any decision will be taken now. If he joins the BJP, it will be a debacle for the local leadership,” a party insider said, requesting anonymity.