Three-Cornered Contest Looms In Jat-Dominated Uchana Kalan Constituency

With major parties vying for the upcoming Haryana assembly elections separately, several constituencies are witnessing multi-cornered battles. One such is the Uchana Kalan constituency, which has seen decades of rivalry between Chaudhary Birender Singh and the Chautala clan. A general constituency, the Uchana Kalan comes under the Hisar Lok Sabha seat and has seen multiple parties dominating its electoral outcomes over years, and especially the regional parties, including the INLD and JJP.

This time, as major political forces, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) all have fielded candidates, and that too the big wigs, including the JJP chief Dushyant Chautala, BJP candidate Devender Chatarbhuj Attri, Congress’s Brijendra Singh, and INLD leader Vinod Pal Singh Dulganch.

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The incumbent MLA is the JJP’s Dushyant Chautala, and towards whom there is a public outrage for siding with the BJP during the 2020-21 farmers protest. Chautala, who was also the deputy chief minister in the BJP-JJP government in the state, has however admitted that it was a mistake to ally with the BJP. However, people are still reminded of Chautala’s stance against the farmers protests, and the JJP is fearing backlash despite Chautala hailing from the influential Jat political dynasty.

The JJP chief is striving to convince the voters aggressively against the narrative. In the 2019 Haryana Assembly election, Chautala had won the seat with a margin of 47,452 votes.

Taking advantage of the anti-incumbency and the anti-BJP sentiments, the Congress’s Brijendra Singh has been campaigning, going to villages after villages and discussing their issues. Brijendra Singh, also a former IAS officer, had switched to Congress from the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, which saw a Congress revival in the state, giving the grand old party hope to return to power after a decade of saffron rule.

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In addition, the Congress candidate has the advantage of being from the Jat community, which dominates the constituency with over 50 percent. Notably, the independent candidate Virender Ghogharian, also from Jat, is feared to pose a challenge to the Congress and JJP candidates alike

The BJP’s pick, Devender Chaterbhuj Attri, as a candidate from the Brahmin community, which constitutes 12.3%, the second largest community, is viewed as a deciding factor for the party. The party is also trying to woo OBC votes.