Ahead of the Bawana Assembly constituency by-election on August 23, the Congress is planning daily public meetings that will be addressed by its senior leaders, including former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and ex-Union Minister Salman Khurshid.
Third time’s the charm?
Though the party’s MLA, Surender Kumar, held the seat for 15 years from 1998, he was left in third place in the 2013 Assembly elections with 25.26% of the votes polled.
In the 2015 election, he placed third again, with his vote share plummeting to 7.87%. This time round, Mr. Kumar is once again the party’s candidate.
While the door-to-door campaign has been on for weeks now, Delhi Congress vice-president Chattar Singh said that the next phase of the campaign will be meetings and rallies addressed by senior leaders.
After Tuesday, which is the last date for withdrawal of nominations, the Congress will have one major meeting every day till campaigning ends.
“We will have Mr. Hooda and his son Deepender Singh Hooda, Mr. Khurshid and other senior leaders campaign. Sajjan Kumar has already addressed meetings over the past weekend,” said Mr. Singh, adding that Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken had also been campaigning in the constituency.
Sajjan Kumar, who had represented Outer Delhi as MP twice, addressed meetings on August 5 and 6.
The Congress leader, accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, has been a controversial figure, but the Congress has involved him in election campaigns since 2014.
Though it failed to win any seats in the 2015 elections, the Congress is banking on the experience of the three-time MLA, party leaders have said.
The Bawana seat, which is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, fell vacant when Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Ved Prakash quit and joined the BJP in March ahead of the civic body elections in April. Now, Mr. Prakash is on the BJP ticket, while a former BJP MLA, Gugan Singh Ranga, has joined the AAP.
