Sonipat: Standing atop a Thar SUV on the main town street and drenched in sweat after a nearly six-hour padyatra, Sonipat MLA Surender Panwar addressed his supporters publicly for the first time after his release from jail last Wednesday.
Just days ahead of the 5 October assembly elections in Haryana, the Congress leader, addressing his jubilant supporters who had gathered with trumpets, reminded them that it was their blessings that had got him out of jail after two months.
“The ED had put me in jail. It’s only with your good wishes and blessings that I am back here in front of you,” Panwar told his supporters, his hands folded, head bowed.
As the Congress candidate reached out to voters in a bid to win the Sonipat seat for a second time, he pitched the election as a referendum on his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as he takes on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in his constituency.
Panwar was arrested on 20 July by the economic intelligence agency as part of its investigation into a money laundering case arising out of illegal mining in Yamunanagar district. The agency accused him and his family of receiving around Rs 26 crore as proceeds from the crime.
However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 23 September declared his arrest illegal and quashed remand orders by the PMLA court, paving the way for his release from Ambala jail.
Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu said the agency had no material to substantiate that he was involved with the offence and there was no ground to arrest him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Panwar and other party leaders are now using the High Court judge’s observations and his arrest to drum up support among Sonipat voters who handed him a big win in the last assembly elections.
A day after the court ordered his release from jail, the Congress organised a large Nyay Hak meeting in Sonipat where senior party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda stood beside Panwar’s daughter-in-law, Samiskha Panwar, urging people to ensure Surender Panwar got justice.
“The court has done justice to him; it’s time for you to do justice to Surender Panwar,” Hooda told voters.
Samiksha, who was spearheading her father-in-law’s campaign before his release from jail, told ThePrint that the huge number of people eagerly waiting to hear him was proof that Sonipat’s voters didn’t believe the allegations made by the agencies.
“Instead of hurting his campaign, people and his supporters have been mobilised after the arrest and especially after the High Court called his arrest illegal,” she told ThePrint on the sidelines of a padyatra Friday.
Panwar may be looking to use the sympathy factor over his ED arrest, but he might not need it because of his goodwill in Sonipat and also because the political winds are flowing in the Congress party’s direction in Haryana.
Still, Panwar has been invoking his arrest at every meeting and rally.
Speaking at another party public meeting with Rahul Gandhi, Panwar once again reminded the voters of Sonipat that the BJP had put him in jail as part of a conspiracy but the ruling party had realised that people’s support for him was only rising,
“I hope you all will serve justice to me in the court of the public just as the honourable court did justice to me,” Panwar told the crowd while Gandhi and Deepender Singh Hooda were on the stage.
Even though Panwar acknowledged the arrest had hurt his campaign, his popularity among urban voters in the Sonipat market wasn’t lost.
“The arrest impacted my campaign but that has been their strategy. They start targeting politicians in the state six months before elections. If they join the BJP, their cases are closed,” he told ThePrint.
Also read: ‘Shareholder of illegal mining syndicate’ — what is ED’s case against Haryana MLA Surender Panwar
Voters behind Panwar—with or without ED’s arrest
The question is: Is the ED arrest a big issue swaying voters in Sonipat?
Probably not as the illegal mining case against Panwar and his arrest are virtual non-factors among voters. Instead, unemployment is a much bigger factor.
Karnal-based political analyst Kushal Pal said Surender Panwar was trying to strike an emotional chord with his support base by invoking his arrest and reminding them why he was away from the scene for a couple of months.
“He is trying to pitch his honesty to his loyal support base. If people will take him as such, he will get some emotional support from them in the form of votes which could be significant considering he is up against Nikhil Madan, who enjoys a good rapport with the Punjabi community in Sonipat,” Pal told ThePrint.
Nikhil Madan had quit the Congress in July, just three months before the assembly elections. Now, the BJP has fielded Madan—who was elected mayor of Sonipat in December 2020—as its candidate against Panwar.
Panwar registered his maiden victory as the Congress candidate in the last assembly election by dethroning the BJP’s two-term MLA Kavita Jain with 59.51 percent of the vote share compared to just 34.88 percent secured by Jain.
Many Sonipat voters ThePrint spoke to said growing unemployment during the BJP’s 10 years in power and their opposition to former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar were bigger factors in their choice.
While the Congress has an edge in Haryana and the BJP is facing an enormous anti-incumbency vote, Panwar also has the added advantage of his popularity with voters.
Phool Kunwar, a 56-year-old voter in Raipur, said he preferred Panwar because of his availability and easy access during emergencies.
He said he would choose Panwar even though he’s a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and isn’t a fan of the Congress’ most prominent Jat face—Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
“As a Jat, I always looked up to Hooda but he never cared about Sonipat and its villagers during his tenure as CM. I can’t recall anyone in Sonipt who got a government job in our constituency when he was CM,” Kunwar told ThePrint.
“I am a BJP supporter but a voter of Panwar due to his availability. We can easily reach out to him. He is a brotherly figure,” he added.
Voters on the ground also conceded that while the Jats are likely to be with Panwar considering his goodwill among them and also the larger anti-BJP sentiment in the state, it is the voters of the Punjabi community that hold the key.
Voter data from political parties shows the Punjabi community is a dominant force in the Sonipat assembly constituency. It accounts for nearly 30 percent of the approximately 2.5 lakh total voters, followed by the Jats.
Voters like Kunwar shrug off the illegal mining case and Panwar’s arrest, saying the “entire Sonipat knows” of his mining business and while the ED can claim he did something illegal to face arrest, he made good use of his wealth to help people in need.
“Who does not earn money out of business?” Kunwar asked. “How one uses the money earned on people separates good politicians from other ones. Panwar has proved to be among us. Has stepped up when we needed him with all his money and might. The ED can say whatever they want but we’ll vote for Panwar.”
The anger against Khattar, they said, was the underlying factor behind the dichotomy between BJP supporters and Panwar voters in Sonipat, and the tide against the BJP’s candidate.
Virender, a 32-year-old voter, echoed Kunwar’s views. He said the BJP had destroyed its goodwill by making Khattar its most prominent face in the state instead of former Haryana home minister Anil Vij.
Describing Nayab Singh Saini as a “remote-controlled” chief minister, he said the sentiment would change if the party chose Vij as its CM face instead.
Also read: Punjab & Haryana HC clamps down on ED’s powers, says no arrests under PMLA without scheduled offence
‘No smoke without fire’ but unemployment key factor
While Panwar is trying to garner sympathy by highlighting the ED’s action against him, BJP supporters backing Madan believe “there is no smoke without fire”.
Sunil Malhotra, a 46-year-old who runs a flourishing hardware business in Sonipat town, alleged Panwar was a “vote purchaser” and did not earn his victory through his work.
“He distributed watches to scores of people in Sonipat before the last assembly election which could not come without surplus wealth. The ED’s proceedings against him is just a proof of his enormous wealth that he has used to buy votes of innocent people,” Malhotra said.
“There is no smoke without fire. The ED doesn’t arrest people without them having made money from illegal ways,” he added.
Manoj Sharma, a 56-year-old retired IT professional whose two sons work in Dubai, disagrees, saying that unemployment was a big factor against the BJP in Haryana.
But he believed the BJP’s candidate was still in the contest.
Sharma said another issue on his mind was the lynching of Muslims based on religion which he said was driving his desire to “demote the BJP” first in Sonipat and then in Haryana.
“Today they are lynching one religion on the streets. The day is not far when people will be dragged from their homes and killed on religious grounds,” Sharma said.
“I want to demote the BJP at the expense of any other party. There are no jobs here. Both my sons would come back if there were top-quality jobs in Haryana, but that’s not the case,” he added.
Still, both Malhotra and Sharma believe Madan will get votes in the name of the BJP and, more specifically, PM Narendra Modi.
Moreover, he will get the support of the Punjabi community which has a sway over the business community in Sonipat town.
“Madan is a failed mayor of Sonipat who could not improve urban infrastructure here and he is unlikely to get votes in his own name,” said Malhotra.
“Whatever he will get will come only for the lotus symbol he represents.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)