Polls reach feverish pitch

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">HISAR: With mercury crossing 40 degrees celcius and the electioneering reaching a feverish pitch, heat wave and the poll fever have completely gripped this parliamentary constituency which is witnessing for all practical purposes a straight contest between two Barwalas - former Union Minister and sitting Haryana MLA Jai Prakash Barwala of the Congress and Surinder Singh Barwala of the Indian National Lok Dal(INLD).<br /><br />While Surinder Singh, who was a member of the dissolved Lok Sabha, is struggling hard to retain the seat, Jai Prakash, popularly known as JP, seems to be comfortably placed and enjoying a definite edge over him.<br /><br />Interestingly, both the Barwalas started their political career under the guidance of the late Chaudhary Devi Lal.And both have represented this parliamentary constituency twice in the past. <br /><br />While JP was elected in the 1989 and 1996 general elections, Surinder singh bagged this seat in the 1998 and 1999 elections. Besides, both of them have also represented Barwala Assembly segment in the state Vidhan Sabha once.<br /><br />This electoral battle has assumed a special significance this time in the light of the fact that chief minister Om Prakash Chautala''s Assembly segment, Narwana, also falls in this parliamentary constituency.As such, the chief minister himself is also touring the constituency extensively seeking votes for his party’s candidate.<br /><br />While interacting with a cross-section of society here, this correpondent found that what was hitting the ruling party the most was the anti-incumbency factor and the Congress is losing no opportunity to exploit this factor. <br /><br />Second, there is a general urge for a change as Surinder Singh had been MP since 1998.Besides, the shadow of the coming Assembly elections is also looming large over the constituency and the electorate is eager to give a loud and clear message through the Lok Sabha election that they want a change.<br /><br />A "dhaba" owner near Narwana told this correspondent that there was no doubt that lot of development works had been executed in the last four years in the villages of the constituency, but even then the people were not willing to vote for Chautala''s candidate.<br /><br />"Besides, what is more interesting is that there are many such voters who outwardly pretend to be the supporters of Chautala''s party, but in reality they will vote for the Congress. This is a new development as these people will not like to offend the ruling party at this juncture," explained this ''dhaba'' owner adding that this phenomenon is being noticed not only in this constituency, but through out the state.<br /><br />Besides, a major section of the farming community in this region is also itching to teach a lesson to the ruling party, thanks to the Kandela police firing in which five to six farmers were killed a couple of year back during the farmers’ agitation against the state government’s move to recover power bills arrears.State BKU chief Ghasi Ram has already issued an appeal to the farming community to vote for Congress candidates in this election.<br /><br />The farmers are also sore over the manner in which the state government after the agitation tried to harass their leader by filing all sorts of cases against him.<br /><br /><formid=367815></formid=367815></div> </div>