24 candidates in fray as Gurugram goes to polls

Gurugram, May 11 (IANS) Over 22 lakh voters will decide the fate of 24 candidates as Gurugram, along with nine other parliamentary constituencies in Haryana, goes to the polls in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections on Sunday.

Voting will be held between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. in 1,194 polling stations spread across nine Assembly segments in three districts -- Gurugram (4), Rewari (2) and Nuh (3).

The contest in Gurugram is mainly between sitting BJP MP Rao Inderjit Singh and Captain Ajay Singh Yadav of the Congress, with the latter having little edge due to the anti-incumbency factor and the presence of minority voters in good numbers in this constituency.

Also in the fray are Mehmood Khan of the Jannayak Janata Party-Aam Aadmi Party alliance and Virender Rana of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).

In 2014, Rao Inderjit Singh had defeated Zakir Hussain of the INLD by a huge margin of 2,74,722 votes. The present Union Minister of State had then promised to provide rail connection and water canal to Haryana's most backward district, Nuh. But none of the promises got fulfilled.

The biggest worry for the BJP is that almost 90 per cent voters in Nuh are Muslims, who are peeved by the rising cases of mob lynching and communal tensions in the last five years. Hence the BJP will have to bank largely on the voters from Gurugram and Rewari districts to pull off a victory.

The constituency also has a large number of Yadav voters. And since both Rao Inderjit Singh and Captain Ajay Singh Yadav belong to the Yadav community, there is a great chance of Yadav votes getting divided between them, especially in Rewari and Gurugram districts.