With political heavyweights like Venod Sharma and Randeep Singh Surjewala supposedly eyeing the seats of Panchkula and Kalka in the coming Assembly elections, the chances of a large number of local leaders maybe dimmed.

The two Assembly seats are considered to be Congress bastions. It has been said that Chander Mohan’s claim to the Panchkula seat has been weakened, which is why a number of local claimants to the two seats have sprung.

Among those in the race include former MC president Rawinder Rawal, district president Om Prakash Devinagar, media in-charge of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, Pawan Jain, Congress’ city president RK Kakkar, nominated councillor Chandvir Hooda, veteran Congress worker Shashi Sharma, besides Venod Sharma and Randeep Singh Surjewala.

“Kalka is a gujjar dominated constituency with around 30,000 gujjars staying in 97 villages. I met the senior Congress leaders and have expressed my will to contest the election from here, as I am not only the most experienced and seniormost Congress leader of the area but also have been the main campaigner for Chander Mohan, who has won the seat for four consecutive terms,” Devinagar said.

He added that the only gujjar candidate who could stop Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) Pradeep Chaudhary from taking Kalka is none but him.

Meanwhile, Rawinder Rawal said: “The total population of Panchkula constituency is around 1,40,000, including that of the Barwala block, which falls part of it. With the kind of demographic changes that have taken place in Panchkula in the last five years, the constituency is turning out to be Punjabi dominated. Also, even though Chandermohan was staying among the people of Panchkula, he failed to realise the aspirations of the locals, as he was originally from Hisar.”

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