The seat fell vacant after Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned from his membership in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha on 3 August.
NEW DELHI: The political stage is all set for Adampur by-polls. This week, the election commission announced the by-election scheduled for seven constituencies and Adampur is one of them. According to political analysts, Adampur polls are a high stakes battle, which has become a triangular competition between the BJP, Congress and AAP.
This seat fell vacant after Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned from his membership in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha on 3 August. Bishnoi joined BJP the next day. This resignation from Vidhan Sabha came after Bishnoi’s cross-vote in the Rajya Sabha election, which resulted in the defeat of Congress leader Ajay Makan. Currently, BJP and AAP have announced their candidates. BJP has given the ticket to Kuldeep Bishnoi’s son Bhavya Bishnoi.
The Bishnoi family has been representing the seat since 1968. While Bishnoi’s father Bhajan Lal won the seat from 1968 to 2000, Bishnoi won it in 2005, 2009, 2014 and 2019; and his wife Renuka won the 2012 bypoll from Adampur.
On the other hand, a newcomer, AAP has fielded Satender Singh, who joined the party last month after leaving BJP. The grand old Party has not decided on a candidate yet. The brainstorming for the “heavy candidate” has started. The party is doing the ground survey and according to sources, a list of three candidates will be sent to the party’s high command and they will decide on the right candidate.
After the announcement of the ticket for his son Bhavya, Kuldeep Bishnoi said: “Bhavya will get more votes than me and we will win with a huge margin.”
Asked who is in competition with BJP in this election, Bishnoi said: “This is a one-sided election and both Congress and AAP are competing for second and third position.” “This election is not about BJP, Congress or AAP, this election is about value and respect of Adampur,” he added.
The Sunday Guardian talked to AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta after AAP announced their candidate for bypolls. According to Gupta, their candidate Satender Singh “stays in the constituency and goes to every function either in joy or sad”. He further targeted Bishnoi on the issue of dynasty politics. The Adampur bypolls are also seen as crucial because they will indicate the mood of the public before the upcoming Panchayat elections and 2024 Assembly elections. The Bishnoi family is fighting the issue of development and work done by Kuldeep during his tenure. “I have brought projects worth Rs 275 crore for the development of Adampur,” Bishnoi said. “One of the main reasons behind joining the BJP is to bring ‘tabr-tor’, fast-paced development to the constituency,” Bishnoi added. The AAP is also formulating a strategy to corner both Congress and BJP and their prime focus is on civic issues. “The AAP will campaign on the issues of water, education and health,” Gupta said. In the 2019 Assembly election, AAP fielded 46 candidates for the 90 members Haryana Assembly, but the party won zero seats and the majority of the candidates lost deposits. Adampur elections are a crucial test for all parties, where Bishnoi’s are fighting for the family seat, Congress is fighting for its bastion and AAP is fighting for its respect.