18 candidates in fray from Ambala Lok Sabha seat

AMBALA: As many as 18 candidates are in the fray from Ambala (reserved) Lok Sabha seat after 1996, when there were 20 candidates who had contested Lok Sabha elections from here. As per the information accessed through Election Commission of India (ECI), the highest vote share percentage ever recorded at Ambala seat is 68.37% bagged by Ram Prakash Chaudhary of Indian National Congress in 1971, followed by Suraj Bhan at 68.34% in 1977.All the candidates are making efforts to win over voters but the direct contest is emerging between BJP and its opposition Congress.
As per the data provided by the district administration, there are around 18.53L voters in Ambala Lok Sabha constituency including 9.84L male, 8.62L female, and 30 transgender. The Ambala also has registered 6,850 service and 238 overseas voters.
As per the ground report from Ambala district areas, the direct contest is reported to be between two-time Member Parliaments (MPs) from here Kumari Selja of Congress and Rattan Lal Kataria of BJP. Both these candidates are facing each other for the third time, and earlier Kumari Selja has defeated Kataria in two contests of 2004 and 2009.
Large number party workers are reaching out residents while seeking votes for their candidates and in markets of Ambala the flags of only BJP and Congress are witnessed in competition.
Ambala based Punjab and Haryana advocate Hemant Kumar accessed some records from ECI to ascertain the past voting trends in Ambala (reserved) Lok Sabha seat.
As per the data analysed, Hemant told, in 2014 elections, Kataria won Ambala seat, when Selja was not contesting from here, after bagging around 6.12L votes out of cast 12.81L votes having a vote share percentage of 50.21% defeating Congress’s Raj Kumar Balmiki with a margin of around 3.40L votes.
Similarly, in 2009 elections, Selja bagged 25.48% vote share while Kataria got 25.32% and Selja had won this seat then with a margin of around 14.5K votes. Earlier in 2004, Selja bagged 49% vote share when she had defeated Kataria with a margin of around 2.34L votes.
In 1998, Aman Kumar Nagra of BSP bagged 36.97% vote share while Suraj Bhan of BJP got 36.58% and Nagra won with a margin of just 2864 votes.
In 1999, when Kataria became Ambala MP for the first time, he defeated Phul Chand Mullana of Congress with a margin of 1.24L votes after bagging 51.63% vote share.