Ellanabad: The INLD Bastion Is Losing Ground To Congress?

Ellenabad constituency lies in the Sirsa district of Haryana. It was previously known as Kharial. The current MLA of the constituency is Abhay Singh Chautala,  current face of Indian National Lok dal (INLD). The constituency has a majority of Hindu population. It also has a significant minority of Sikh, and small Muslim and Christian communities. It has been an INLD bastion since 2000, with Abhay Chautala holding the seat since 2010.

Abhay Singh Chautala, grandson of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal and son of former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, is facing one of his toughest electoral challenges. Chautala is up against Congress candidate Bharat Singh Beniwal in a direct face-off. This contest is especially significant since Chautala has previously defeated Beniwal. However, the ground seems more complex this time.

Chautala has held the Ellenabad seat since 2010 and before that, his father Om Prakash Chautala won in 2009. The INLD has maintained a stronghold over this seat since 2000, even when the party faced its worst electoral performance across the state in 2019. Chautala was the only INLD candidate to secure a seat in the Haryana Assembly, winning Ellenabad once again. In the 2021 by-election, following his resignation in support of the farmers’ protest, Chautala narrowly defeated BJP’s Gobind Kanda by 6,739 votes.

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Congress’ Beniwal was the MLA of erstwhile Darba Kalan constituency in 2005. The 72-year-old’s political journey started in 1991 when he first contested from Darba Kalan. He failed in the election. It was in 2005 when he got prominence when he defeated four-time MLA and Rajya Sabha member Vidya Beniwal and won his first legislative seat.

After his 2005 victory, Beniwal was denied ticket two times by his party. He contested in 2009 against Om Praksah Chautala. Though he gave a tough fight, Chautala won the election. In 2020 by-election, Beniwal contested against Abhay Chautala, and faced defeat. In 2019 also he could not win the election. However, it appears that this year, Beniwal is giving a tough competition to the sitting MLA Abhay Singh Chautala.

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BJP fields Amir Chand Mehta from Ellenabad. He performed weak in the 2009 election, when he managed to gain 3,618 votes against Om Prakash Chautala, who won with the margin of 64,567 votes. It appears that he is yet to have a hold of the constituency. Reportedly, if he performs low this year, Beniwal would gain an edge against Abhay Chautala, consolidating the anti-Chautala votes to his favour.