Constituency Profile Bhiwani-Mahendragarh: Congress won once, BJP twice, but basic amenities elude people

Tribune News Service

Sunit Dhawan

Rohtak, April 5

The Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency is a relatively new one and has witnessed only three General Election — in 2009, 2014 and 2019. The constituency came into existence in 2008 following the recommendation of the Delimitation Commission of India.

Get drinking water once in 4 days

Villages lack even basic amenities like clean drinking water, good roads and basic healthcare facilities. We get drinking water once in 3-4 days. Suresh, resident of a Charkhi Dadri village

Year Winner Party

2009 Shruti Choudhry Congress

2014/2019 Dharambir Singh Chaudhary BJP

It was created by merging the Assembly segments of Ateli, Mahendragarh, Narnaul and Nangal Chaudhry of the former Mahendragarh constituency, and Assembly segments of Loharu, Badhra, Dadri, Bhiwani and Tosham of the erstwhile Bhiwani and Charkhi Dadri constituency.

Local residents lament that successive governments at the Centre and in the state have failed to address their pressing concerns, like acute scarcity of water, unemployment and lack of industrial development.

“Villages lack even the basic amenities like clean drinking water, good roads and basic healthcare facilities. We get drinking water once in three to four days,” says Suresh of Makrana village in Charkhi Dadri district.

Shruti Choudhry of the Congress won the first Lok Sabha election from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh constituency in 2009 by defeating stalwart INLD leader (now JJP national president), Dr Ajay Singh Chautala.

However, the BJP, which was nowhere in the picture in the 2009 elections, won the seat with a comfortable margin in 2014 owing to the Modi wave.

BJP candidate Dharambir Singh defeated INLD candidate Rao Bahadur Singh, while Shruti finished third. Dharambir was fielded by the BJP again in the 2019 elections, and won with a massive mandate of 7,36,699 (63.45 per cent) votes.

Shruti bagged the second position, while JJP’s Swati Yadav stood third and INLD’s Balwan Singh finished fourth.

The BJP has fielded Dharambir yet again, for the third consecutive time, as its candidate from the same constituency. Rao Bahadur Singh, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh constituency on INLD ticket and got the second position, has now been fielded by the JJP in the current poll.

Interestingly, Rao Bahadur Singh, who is also a former MLA from Nangal Chaudhary, had switched over to the Congress in 2019 and has recently joined the JJP.

As per political observers, Rao Bahadur Singh wanted a Lok Sabha ticket from the Congress, but with his hope dashed, he left the Congress and joined the JJP. The JJP has declared him as its nominee for the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat this time.

While the BJP and JJP leaders have started campaigning for their respective candidates, the Congress and the INLD are yet to announce their candidates from the constituency.

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