Bhiwani set to witness battle royal

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">CHANDIGARH: With the Congress deciding to field former chief minister Bhajan Lal''s son Kuldeep Bishnoi for the Bhiwani Lok Sabha seat in Haryana, the constituency is poised to witness a battle royal. The Indian National Lok Dal''s candidate is Ajay Chautala, elder son of chief minister Om Prakash Chautala while the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) is banking on Surinder Singh , son of HVP supremo and former chief minister Bansi Lal, for this seat.<br /><br />The stakes are high for all the three candidates.While Ajay Chautala''s task is to retain the seat which he had wrested from the HVP with an impressive margin in the last Lok Sabha elections, the latter is out to prove that Bhiwani is its stronghold. The contest is crucial for the Congress in the sense that Bhajan Lal''s assembly constituency, Mandi Adampur, falls in this parliamentary constituency.<br /><br />The political scenario in the state today is not what it was at the time of last elections.<br /><br />In the last Lok Sabha elections, INLD had the support of the BJP because the two parties had fought the elections jointly. This time, the INLD has to manage its show without BJP support because the latter has decided to go it alone in the state. Ajay Chautala is seeking votes on the strength of what he and the state government did for the development of the constituency in the last five years.<br /><br />In another major development, the Congress has decided to shift Selja from Sirsa, which is her traditional seat, to Ambala. The party has named Atma Singh Gill as its candidate for Sirsa where he is likely to face a tough fight from INLD for reason that Sirsa is the home district of Chautalas.<br /><br />As was expected, CLP leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda is the party candidate for the Rohtak seat from where he has been elected thrice in the past. Hooda seems to be quite confident of winning the seat. By fielding formervice-chancellor of Maharishi Dayanand University as its candidate for this prestigious seat, considered to be the centre of Jat politics in the state, the INLD too is out to give a tough fight to the Congress. In the neighbouring constituency of Sonepat, the Congress has decided to field former HPCC president Dharmpal Malik.<br /><br /><formid=526372></formid=526372></div> </div>