Yadav V/S Jats : Fierce fight in Bhiwani

Can you imagine that Bhiwani of Bansilal, the so-called ‘Vikas Purush’ of Haryana, can be a terrible and reeking city. But this is the reality of Bhiwani, despite knowing this reality, everyone is helpless before the administration and leaders. Bansilal and Bhiwani are synonymous. Bhiwani is adjacent to the border of Rajasthan. The history of Bhiwani-Mahendragarh parliamentary constituency is as old as its name. Earlier there were separate Lok Sabha seats named Bhiwani and Mahendragarh, but after delimitation, a new seat was formed with the joint name of Bhiwani-Mahendragarh. It is believed that it was done to break the hegemony of the Jat community. The Lok Sabha seat named Bhiwani existed from1977 to 2004. Whereas the Lok Sabha seat named Mahendragarh existed from the second general election of 1957 to 2004. Now the name of this seat is called Mahendragarh Bhiwani Lok Sabha seat. In the delimitation held in 2008, some areas were cut off and the remaining areas were merged to form a new seat (Bhiwani-Mahendragarh). This seat came into existence for the first time in the2009 elections. Dominance of Rao Birendra Singh Mahendragarh seat had become VIP in the year 1971, because Rao Birendra Singh, a descendant of the great independence hero Rao Tularam, had won this seat first time. Before this, Rao Birendra Singh had been the Chief Minister of Haryana. Rao had a powerful presence in Mahendragarh. Elections were held between Rampura House and Anti-Rampura House.
Emergence of Bansilal
The nature of Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat has been mixed. There was a time, when neither electricity nor water, roads existed, only sand dunes were visible far and wide. When Bansi Lal became the second Chief Minister of Haryana, he not only rejuvenated Bhiwani but took care of overall development of Haryana. Ch. Bansilal has been MP from Bhiwani for three consecutive terms since 1980. His proximity to the former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi was not hidden from anyone. The Indira-Sanjay-Bansilal trio was famous in those days. Bansi Lal’s easy access to Indira Gandhi had opened the doors of development for Haryana. Bansilal was the Chief Minister of the state for three times. Bansilal changed the political circumstances in his favor by changing the social and economic circumstances.

The Division of MLA seats
There are nine assembly seats in Bhiwani parliamentary constituency. Bharatiya Janata Party has five, two seats are with Congress, one seat with Jan Nayak Janata Party and one with an independent candidate out of nine seats. Let us take a look at the situation of the MLAs here. Jaiprakash Dalal of Bharatiya Janata Party is the MLA from Loharu Assembly. Naina Chautala, mother of Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, is the MLA from Badhra Assembly. Ghanshyam Saraf of Bharatiya Janata Party from Bhiwani city. Bansi Lal’s daughter-in-law Kiran Choudhary is the MLA of Congress Party from Tosham. Sitaram Yadav is the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Ateli. Rao Dan Singh of Congress Party is MLA from Mahendragarh, Omprakash Yadav of Bharatiya Janata Party from Narnaul and Abhay Singh Yadav is MLA from Nangal Chaudhary Assembly seat. Loharu, Badhda, Dadri, Bhiwani, Tosham assembly constituencies are Jat dominated. On the other hand, Mahendragarh, Ateli, Nangal Chaudhary, Narnaul are Yadav dominated.

Cast Equations in Bhiwani
Before we analyze Bhiwani Lok Sabha seat, let us take a lookat the caste equation here. Jat 3,40,000, Ahir 2,60,000, SC B-1,42,000, Brahmin1,34,000, Rajput 91,000, Dhanak 67,000, Khati 52,000, Kumhar 50,000, Gurjar39,000, Saini 34,000, Arora/Punjabi 24,000, Barber 24,000, Nayak 24,000, Other BC 24,000, Valmiki 19,000, Goldsmith 11,000, Other SC 7,000 Others 1,50,000, Total 14,70,000. Total Voters in Bhiwani According to the population census of 2011, the voters of Bhiwani Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat are approximately 13,65,945, which is approximately 81.2%. On the basis of these figures, we can say that this parliamentary constituency is basically an important area of rural India.

Now, if we talk about urban voters, according to the population of 2011, 3,16,253voters are urban i.e. about 18.8%. This time non-Yadav and non-Jat voters are also seen playing a decisive role in the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat which has a majority of Jat and Yadav voters. Political History of Bhiwani Let us look at the parliamentary history of Bhiwani. In 1971and 1977, Haryana’s veteran leader Smt. Chandrawati contested elections from Bhiwani for the first time and won. Bansi Lal did the work of breaking the strong hold of Chandravati when he contested elections from Bhiwani on Congress Party ticket for two consecutive times in the year 1980 and 84 and was victorious. In the year 1987, the situation changed a bit, Lok Dal candidate Chaudhary Ram Narayan Singh contested the election and won. By 1996, Bansi Lal had a rift with Congress and he formed a party in the name of Haryana Vikas Party. In 1996, his son Surendra Singh contested the elections on Haryana Vikas Party ticket and won from Bhiwani. The height of Bansi Lal’s power can begauged from this, be it Devi Lal, Banarasi Das Gupta, Bhajan Lal, and Dr. Bhupendra Singh Hooda, all of them wanted to abolish Bansi Lal’s supremacy in some way or the other. Due to the challenge of dominance of Jats, in 1999 former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal fielded his son Ajay Singh Chautala from Bhiwani and defeated Surendra Singh. In 2004, Bansi Lal again lost when Bhajan Lal fielded his son Kuldeep Vishnoi from Bhiwani and made him win. All the old associates of Bansilal were against in this election.

By 2004, Bansilal’s son Surendra Singh reached an agreement with the Congress and merged Haryana Vikas Party with the Congress. Bhupendra Singh Hooda became the Chief Minister but Surendra Singh died in a helicopter crash in2009. His daughter Shruti Chaudhary contested the election and won from Bhiwani. In 2014, just one day before contesting the elections, Chaudhary Dharamveer Singh resigned from the Congress Party and contested the elections on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket in which he defeated Shruti Chaudhary. In 2019, Dharamveer did not want to contest the elections but seeing the storm of Narendra Modi. He decided to contest the elections again and then such a storm blew that he defeated Shruti Choudhary by getting 65% votes. Even today Dharambir is roaming around from city to city with his mind of contesting elections again and he has more faith in Narendra Modi’s work than his own work.