Hisar: Haryana Janhit Congress' Kuldeep Bishnoi pitches in a multi-cornered fight

HISAR: Last week, as Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) leader Kuldeep Bishnoi, the sitting MP from Hisar, was moving from village to village including Umra, he didn’t forget to remind the villagers about the work and progress his father and former chief minister Bhajan Lal has brought to this region.

Bishnoi is pitched in a multi-cornered contest against Indian National Lok Dal's Dushyant Chautala, Congress candidate Sampat Singh and Aam Aadmi Party candidate Yudhbir Singh Khyaliya. Dushyant is the grandson of INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala.

"If any politician did anything for Hisar, It was Bhajan Lal ji only. He was people's man, created government jobs here,” Bishnoi told a gathering at Ramayanpur village during a three-minute speech.

Bishnoi, a non-Jat face taking on Jat nominees of the INLD and Congress, doesn’t see the caste issue to pay a major role. "I don't see it as Jat versus and non-Jat. We never practice caste-based politics. Our voters cut across all the 36 castes here in Haryana," Bishnoi told ET.

Many had written-off Bishnoi from Haryana politics after four MLAs of the HFC-Bhajal Lal had switched loyalties and joined the Congress. But, in the 2011 Hisar by-polls, necessitated by Bhajan Lal’s death, Bishnoi proved his critics wrong, defeating INLD’s Ajay Chautala.

Congress candidate Jai Parkash had lost his deposit money. Since 1967, the Congress had won the Hisar parliamentary seat five terms – in 1967, 1972, 1984, 1991 and 2004.

The HJCBL was floated in December 2007 after Bhajan Lal and Bishnoi were expelled from the Congress. The 2011 by-election saw 38.84 per cent votes polled for the HJC-BJP alliance.