Chandigarh: Opposition parties in Punjab and Haryana are heavily banking on their sitting MLAs to bring them some seats in the Lok Sabha. As many as 13 legislators are in the fray, in the 23 Lok Sabha seats across the two states, turning the contest hot on at least 10 of them.
While this may not make a difference in Haryana, which is scheduled for assembly elections later this year, victories for the MLAs could lead to several assembly bypolls in Punjab.
In Haryana, the opposition Congress has fielded three MLAs, including two of its top legislators, to fight these elections while in Punjab at least half a dozen Akali-BJP and AAP legislators have been fielded in Lok Sabha seats.
The most prominent MLA contesting this election is the two-time Congress chief minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is the sitting MLA from Garhi Sampal Kiloi, a segment of the Rohtak parliamentary seat.
Hooda is the party’s candidate from Sonepat. His entry into the poll fray has made the Jat-dominated seat tough for the ruling BJP, which has retained its MP, Ramesh Chander Kaushik.
The other high-profile MLA contestant is the former Congress speaker, Kuldeep Sharma who is the sitting MLA from Ghanaur, an assembly segment of Sonepat. He is the party’s candidate from Karnal. Sharma was seeking a ticket for his son, Chanakya Pandit, but was asked to prove his mettle on the seat. In case Sharma wins, he can expect a ticket for his son in the assembly elections later this year.
Avtar Singh Bhadana, a BJP MLA from Meerapur constituency in Uttar Pradesh who joined the Congress in February, is the party’s candidate from Faridabad. His name was announced after much controversy with the party changing its candidate Lalit Nagar at the last minute.
The ruling BJP has fielded its cabinet minister Nayab Singh Saini, the Naraingarh MLA, from the Kurukshetra seat after its sitting MP there, Raj Kumar Saini, turned a rebel. The seat is a hotbed of the backward class community and the BJP was left with no option but to bring in the minister, who is an OBC, to fight the polls. This despite the party having made it clear that in Haryana it would not ask its sitting MLAs to contest.
“An MLA is a safe candidate to project. He has already proved his electoral winnability,” says political analyst Prof Ashutosh Kumar of the phenomenon. “Moreover he has a local connect established already. It’s like a sarpanch being asked to contest for the MLA seat.”
Also read: The Haryana leader who’s uniting anti-Jat forces and could hurt BJP & Congress
Similar story in Punjab
In Punjab, which has 13 seats parliamentary seats, the high-stakes Bathinda seat has three sitting MLAs in the fray. The ruling Congress has fielded its Gidderbaha MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, a former national youth president here.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Bholath and former leader of the opposition, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who turned rebel and formed his own political outfit the Punjab Ekta party, is also contesting from Bathinda. AAP’s woman MLA from Talwandi Sabo, Prof Baljinder Kaur, has also been fielded from here.
The frontrunner in Bathinda is sitting MP and Akali union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal. In case she loses, the winner will have increased his or her political stature by several leaps.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is the Jalalabad MLA is contesting from Ferozepur, a seat considered to be a “safe” seat for the Akalis.
Sukhbir’s entry into the electoral fray happened after much dilly-dallying but it was felt that the Akalis were getting an opportunity to revive themselves in these elections. The Badals are facing an existential crisis after being held responsible for the ‘desecration’ issue.
Sukhbir’s party colleague, former finance minister Paramjit Singh Dhindsa, who is the sitting MLA from Lehragaga, is fighting the Sangrur seat. He is up against the hugely popular AAP MP and satirist Bhagwant Mann.
“If an MLA has been asked to contest one can safely deduce that the seat is a high-stakes one and will be contested closely. Bathinda, for instance, is a high-stakes seat for the Akalis. The Badal bahu’s political career is involved,” says Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur, a Chandigarh-based expert on Akali politics.
“On other seats, the Akalis, who have only 14 MLAs in the 117-member assembly, have fielded Sukhbir and Dhindsa, two of the top MLAs. It shows that they want to prove their mettle and that they are still in the game,”
The BJP, which is in an alliance with the Akalis in Punjab, has fielded one MLA of the three seats it has in the alliance. It has chosen sitting Phagwara MLA Som Prakash, a former bureaucrat, to contest the reserved Hoshiarpur seat rejecting its sitting MP Vijay Sampla. An upset Sampla has almost turned rebel.
“For the BJP, which has only three MLAs, to field one is significant. They are not leaving anything to chance even at the risk of annoying their sitting MP,” adds Kaur.
The Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) MLA from Ludhiana, Simerjeet Singh Bains, is in the poll fray at the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency where the fight is with sitting Congress MP Ravneet Bittu and Akali leader Maheshinder Singh Grewal. The LIP is fighting the elections in alliance with Khaira’s Punjab Ekta Party.
Master Baldev Singh, the AAP MLA from Jaito, who is a member of Khaira’s rebel group, is contesting the reserved Faridkot seat.
Also read: Why this Haryana seat could decide fate of more than one Congress leader