It's Haryana’s hot seat. Bhiwani will see the clash of three Lal clans for the Lok Sabha seat.With the Congress high command okaying the candidature of Bhajan junior Kuldeep Bishnoi, Bhiwani will witness no less than a political swayamvar. The other candidates are Surender Singh, son of Haryana Vikas Party supremo Bansi Lal, and Ajay Singh Chautala, grandson of Devi Lal and son of Indian National Lok Dal leader and chief minister Om Prakash Chautala. The poll warriors are getting ready for the big fight on May 13.Sons of the incumbent and two former chief ministers have stocked their arsenals with all kinds of electoral weapons to wage a proxy war for the supremacy of their patriachs. Interestingly, it is for the first time in the history of Haryana that the three clans (Bhajan Lal, Devi Lal and Bansi Lal) are locking horns in one constituency.Kuldeep’s name came as no surprise in the wake of frantic efforts made by Bhajan detractors in the Congress to bring his son to contest from Bhiwani instead of Faridabad which might have fallen in his share.The other two contenders, Surender Singh and Ajay Chautala, have the tacit advantage of having already kickstarted their campaigns as their names were cleared much earlier by the parties.This fight is not without traditional Haryanvi flair. It’s the stuff of duels and challenges and family rivalry. Ajay had defeated Surender in the previous Lok Sabha polls. Still smarting from that defeat, Surender challenged Ajay to defeat him this time. Needless, to day his challenge was accepted.To add more colour, Kuldeep has now entered the race. In fact, Bhajan’s name was thrown for the Faridabad seat but he turned down the proposal, demanding a ticket for his son. His detractors in the party pleaded that Kuldeep be fielded against the sons of other two chief ministerial candidates in the state.Political observers feel that the result of Bhiwani would be an indication as to who the people of the state want as their chief minister in the next Assembly elections.
