Campaign picks up pace as triangular contest beckons in Kurukshetra seat
With nearly a month to go for Lok Sabha polls in Haryana on May 25, the campaign remains largely muted with the Congress yet to announce its candidates. Canvassing has, however, intensied in the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha constituency, which is locked in a triangular contest. Candidates of all three major contenders – the BJP, INDIA bloc and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) – have hit the ground with door-to-door campaigns and street corner meetings.
INDIA bloc candidate and Aam Aadmi Party’s Haryana chief Sushil Gupta has been seeking votes citing the work done by Arvind Kejriwal’s government in Delhi to improve the government schools and hospitals and free power and water. His opponent and Bharatiya Janata
Party’s candidate Naveen Jindal, in his meetings, promises a “Viksit Kurukshetra, Viksit Rashtra (Developed Kurukshetra, Developed Nation)”.
Mr. Gupta, along with senior Congress leader Ashok Arora, visited the wards and villages in Kurukshetra’s Thanesar Assembly segment and carried out a door-to-door campaign in Pundri grain market on Thursday. Riding
an e-rickshaw along with his supporters, the AAP leader interacted with commission agents, businessmen, farmers and labourers in the market and the locals to listen to their grievances.
‘Bright future’
Mr. Jindal, holding a series of nukkad sabhas in over a dozen villages in Gulha Assembly segment during the day, made an appeal to the electorate to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the bright future of their children. Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited and twice Kurukshetra MP when he was with the Congress, Mr. Jindal calls himself a “son of Kurukshetra” in the meetings. His mother Savitri Jindal, a businesswoman and former Haryana Minister, is also campaigning for her son.
Adding a third dimension to the contest is INLD secretary general Abhay Singh Chautala, who has been mostly focusing on the farmers and labourers and their issues. “The two big leaders contesting against me are both industrialists. They are trying political manoeuvring, but the people will not be misled. It is a direct contest between the BJP and the INLD in Kurukshetra,” said Mr. Chautala, interacting with the media persons in Kaithal during the inauguration of a party o¤ce.