CHANDIGARH: With campaigning coming to an end on Thursday for the 90-member Haryana Assembly elections due October 5, key contenders, the BJP and Congress, have focused on both sides of the historic Grand Trunk Road, comprising 29 seats in seven districts.
The region may determine the electoral outcome in the Jat heartland. In the previous two assembly elections, the saffron party won the maximum seats from the region. The key districts are Panchkula, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Panipat, and Sonepat — a BJP stronghold.
In the 2019 assembly polls, the BJP won 14 seats of 29 and Congress 13. The JJP and an independent won one seat each. In 2014, the BJP won 22 seats while Congress managed to win only six seats. The INLD an independent won one seat each. The BJP is in direct contest with the Congress on all seats in the region in the current fight.
Unlike Jat-dominated central Haryana, the GT Road belt has substantial combined caste population and OBCs, a voter base inclined towards the BJP.
During the election campaign, the BJP deployed its top stars – PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Central ministers Nitin Gadkari, ex-CM ML Khattar, party election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan, UP CM Yogi Adityanath and his Rajasthan counterpart Bhajan Lal.
Political analysts believe that as the stretch is a non-Jat-dominated area, the saffron party is again trying hard to maintain its supremacy gained since 2014. “Many development works have taken place in the area.
Cities like Ambala, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Sonipat are now major commercial hubs,” said a BJP leader. That’s precisely the reason why CM Nayab Singh Saini won the Karnal by-election earlier this year, he said.
LoP and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi started his Haryana yatra from Naraingarh, the hometown of Saini, moved to Kurukshetra and then to Sonepat for a rally.
Tanwar back in Congress
BJP leader and former Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar joined the Congress at Rahul Gandhi's rally in Mahendragarh of Haryana on Thursday, a setback for the ruling party just two days before the state goes to polls.