Haryana assembly election 2019: Panchkula fight is wide open with Chander Mohan's entry

CHANDIGARH: At a time when Congress is striving to regain its lost ground in the state, former Haryana deputy chief minister Chander Mohan Bishnoi is also facing a 'now or never' like situation.


Chander Mohan is locked in an electoral battle with Gian Chand Gupta, the chief whip and BJP candidate from Panchkula assembly seat. The constituency has got 2.8 lakh strong electorate. Chander Mohan's entry into the poll fray has made it tougher for BJP's Gian Chand Gupta who is seeking a re-election from Panchkula. The Congress leader is mainly banking on the contribution of his family as well as his late father and former CM Bhajan Lal for the growth of Panchkula that happened almost two decades back.

On the other hand, Gupta is banking on the projects incepted over a period of the past five years. Besides, BJP is also hopeful of a positive result in view of the past Chander Mohan-Fiza controversy as well as factionalism in the Congress.

In his mid-50s, Chander Mohan had made his debut in politics in 1993 when he fought a byelection from Kalka assembly constituency. The seat had got vacated following the death of Purush Bhan, the then MLA. Bhajan Lal was chief minister and he fielded Chander Mohan amid protests from Congressmen. "Panchkula was the first such district of the country which had been carved out of a sub-division in 1995. That was the time when Panchkula was treated as a future capital and a roadmap to shift all headquarters was prepared. In fact, Bhajan Lal laid the foundation of modern Panchkula," said former MC president and Chander Mohan's confidante Ravinder Rawal. Rawal said Bhajan Lal and Chander Mohan were the architects of Panchkula and its growth so far. "That (Fiza) episode was a bad phase of his life. But he did no wrong to anybody in the constituency. He remained accessible all the time," he said. Notably, Chander Mohan was last elected from Kalka in 2005 assembly elections. In 2009, he was denied a ticket and Devender Bansal was elected from Panchkula. But Bansal lost the seat to Gian Chand Gupta in 2014.

Gupta and his team count construction of a ROB in Sector 19, house tax relaxation and Rs 2,000-crore development works during the BJP rule as their strength.

"We have RTI queries of development between the Year 2004 to 2014. Panchkula was ranked second lowest when it came to development works in the state. They just laid the foundation stones and never bothered to take follow-up action," said former MC vice-president and Panchkula mandal president B B Singhal, who is also an election agent of Gupta.