Haryana: Bhajan Lal’s grandson set for bumpy ride in family’s Adampur bastion

It’s a bone-rattling ride on the dusty roads connecting the New Anaj Mandi in Adampur to the palatial residence of Bhavya Bishnoi, the sitting Adampur BJP MLA and grandson of Haryana’s three-term chief minister and Congress leader late Bhajan Lal.

Bishnoi, 31, an alumnus of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, the UK, is locked in a direct contest with debutant Congress candidate Chander Parkash, 66, a retired Haryana-cadre IAS officer, who hails from a backward class (BC).

Parkash is campaigning hard against the Bishnois and giving them a tough fight in their citadel. Incidentally, his uncle, Ramji Lal, a former two-term Rajya Sabha member, used to be a close aide of Bhajan Lal much before Haryana was carved out of Punjab.

Despite the crumbling infrastructure in Adampur segment and the voters’ antipathy, BJP’s Bishnoi seems confident of yet another smooth sailing at the hustings, riding primarily on the strength of his political lineage and personal connect with the electorate.

If he succeeds in manoeuvring the bumps of Adampur, it will be the 17th consecutive victory of the Bhajan Lal clan from its pocket borough since 1968. So far, the voters of Adampur have sent five members of the family, Bhajan Lal, his wife Jasma Devi, son Kuldeep Bishnoi, daughter-in-law Renuka Bishnoi, and now grandson Bhavya Bishnoi, to the Vidhan Sabha.

That’s the size and scale of the hold the former non-Jat CM has over Adampur assembly segment in Hisar district where the family has never tasted defeat in the assembly elections.

Thus, it will take more than rhetoric for the Congress to convince voters and turn the tide against Bhavya, who first became MLA in the November 2022 byelection after his father, Kuldeep Bishnoi, resigned from the assembly and joined the BJP.

Chance for change

According to Bhavya, after becoming an MLA, he pumped in ₹800 crore for developmental works in the segment. “Everything is dug up here because sewerage lines are being laid and re-carpeting of roads is underway,” he said, adding that “a lot of time was consumed due to the model code of conduct that delayed implementation.”

On the other hand, Chander Parkash of the Congress has been urging voters to give him a chance. “Adampur was once a well-known place, but today it is a backward area,” he says at a street-corner meeting in the Dalit locality of Kali Ravan panchayat, comprising 6,500 registered voters.

“The BJP not only neglected this area but also deprived Dalits of their rights. It dismantled the brotherhood among 36 biradri of the state and ignored Scheduled Castes and backward classes,” he said.

The constituency has a dominant Jat votebank followed by a substantial Bishnoi population. The electoral battle will be fought across 55 panchayats of the segment dominated by Jat voters (52,000) followed by Bishnois (32,000), Scheduled Castes (18,500), Dhanak caste (6,500), Balmikis (5,000), backward classes (16,000), and 6,000 Brahmins.

Considered a traditional bastion of the Bishnois, the panchayats from where they have always got an unbeatable lead are Sadalpur (12,000 voters), Adampur Mandi (17,000 voters), Sheeshwal, Dhani, Sadalpur, Bhana-Bhodia, Sarangpur, Kherampur, Adampur village and Chaudharywali. There are 12 candidates in the fray in Adampur, including Bishnoi and Parkash. Indian National Lok Dal nominee Randeep Choudhary; Jannayak Janta Party’s Krishan Gangwa Prajapati; Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Bhupender Beniwal, and Independents, including Chander Parkash, a namesake of the Congress nominee, are testing the political waters in Adampur.

Campaign styles, issues at stake

Both the Congress and the BJP candidates are undertaking the second round of the constituency with the focus on door-to-door canvassing and meeting voters in small groups as polling day approaches on October 5.

During his visits of the segment, Congress candidate Parkash has been telling his audience how the BJP “weakened farmers” and introduced web portals to “harm interests” of the cultivators. He is banking on his clean and son-of-the-soil image and urging voters to back him for a change. A major factor working for the Congress candidate is that he does not have to worry about the gathering. The voters converge on their own at the designated place to meet the retired bureaucrat, who had been the Hisar divisional commissioner.

“The BJP pushed back Dalits, BCs and introduced the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) to harass farmers, and deprived downtrodden of benefits,” Parkash claimed at Kali Ravan village on Monday, where he held four meetings.

Taking no chances, BJP candidate Bishnoi is running a multi-layered campaign with his parents Kuldeep Bishnoi and Renuka Bishnoi knocking at the doors of voters separately.

“Let’s not lower our guard and double up efforts. Each one of us must focus on reaching out to the maximum number of voters,” said Bishnoi while meeting workers at his party office at Adampur Mandi after visiting Jagan, Malapur, Sarangpur, Kohli, Sadalpur, and Dhani Seeswal.

According to Bishnoi, the peculiar feature of this constituency is that “either people are pro-Bhajan Lal or anti-Bhajan Lal”.

“Our effort has been to reach out to those nursing some grouse against us,” says Bishnoi, whose poll catchphrase is ‘56 saal ka vishwas aur vikas’.

His campaign is centered on his family’s political legacy and promise of development.

Debate and discussion

Theories, calculations and speculation about the poll outcome are the topics of discussion in every corner of Adampur. Being a fresh face is among the strong factors in favour of the Congress nominee, while voters are vocal about Bishnois disappearing after winning the elections.

“Bishnois give darshan only during the elections,” says Kali former sarpanch Prabhu Kaswan, while his predecessor Mahavir agrees.

“There’s a Congress wave and its candidate is new. There is nothing to say against him,” Om Parkash Siwach says, while another resident of the village, Rohtash, cautions him not to take the Bishnois lightly. “Who knows how to win elections better than the Bishnois? The strength of the Bhajan Lal clan lies in the voters’ forgive-and-forget attitude as polling day nears,” says Rohtash at Kali Ravan. His views are endorsed 15km away at Adampur Mandi by Prince Grover and a few others who had assembled at a shop waiting for the Congress candidate.