Saturday, January 29 2005 12:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Narwana: The Narwana Assembly constituency bordering Punjab is all set to present a keen contest between Haryana Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala and Working President of State Congress Randeep Singh Surjewala in a repeat of the 2000 battle.

Five years ago, the INLD (Indian National Lok Dal) president had wrested the seat from Surjewala by a narrow margin of 2,194 votes.

The former Youth Congress President has this time mounted a stiff fight for Chautala, who is also contesting from Rori Assembly constituency, falling in his home district of Sirsa.

In 2000 also Chautala had contested from both the constituencies and gave up the Rori seat.

Incidentally, the Chief Minister is the only candidate who is contesting simultaneously from two constituencies.

Chautala had tasted a humiliating defeat in the 1996 elections when he finished third behind Randeep and Jai Parkash (Haryana Vikas Party) failing to retain the Narwana seat won by him in the by-election in 1993 when Randeep's father resigned on being elected to the Rajya Sabha.

In the six elections since 1977 the Surjewala family has represented the seat on four occasions - Randeep in 1996 and his father Shamsher Singh Surjewala in 1991, 1982 and 1977.

Surjewala Senior has been shifted to the nearby Kaithal constituency for the February 3 Assembly poll.

In between in 1987, the constituency was represented by Tek Chand of Lok Dal, who made it to the state Assembly after finishing runners up in three successive elections in 1982, 1977 and 1972. Earlier in 1972, 1968 and 1967 the constituency was represented by Indian National Congress (INC) and RPI (Republican Party of India).

Besides Chautala and Randeep, there are 11 other candidates in fray. But none of them is anywhere near to the stature of the two key contestants.

The other candidates include Sita Ram (BJP), Birbal Dass (BSP) and nine others, including eight independents.

Except for the 1987 elections when Tek Chand of Lok Dal, which INLD, won by a margin of 27,839 votes, the victory margin in this constituency has ranged between low of 836 in 1977 and high of 7,161 in 1991.

Incidentally, on both the occasions, Randeep's father Shamsher was the winner defeating Tek Chand, who contested as an Independent,in 1977 and Gauri Shankar (HVP) in the 1991 election.

The Narwana Assembly constituency comprises of 46 villages and Narwana town having a total electoral roll of 1,22,792. It is primarily a rural constituency having about 47,000 Jat voters, 46,000 Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, 8,000 Brahmin, 8,000 Mahajan and 7,500 Sikh voters.