Saturday, January 29 2005 15:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Adampur Mandi (Haryana): The confidence in the Congress camp in this traditional party bastion is palpable. After all, its candidate and Chief Ministerial-hopeful Bhajan Lal has not lost an election from Adampur Mandi in almost four decades.

Hundreds of supporters mill around the Congress poll office in this small town in Hisar district while the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) office a few hundred metres away is almost deserted.

"This will be a very one-sided election," grumbles a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker as he goes around the business of setting up an Assembly poll office for his party.

The writing on the wall seems to be clean to Lal's opponents in this constituency of about 1,40,000 voters. Lal has won seven times from Adampur and his wife Jasma Devi once, when he was in the Rajya Sabha and a Union Minister.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, his younger son Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi defeated Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala's son Ajay from Bhiwani constituency, within which most of Adampur falls.

So sure is Lal of a landslide victory this year too that while his opponents are spending upto 14 hours every day in the villages, he has decided to dispense with door-to-door campaigning in the last few days leading upto voting on February 3.

"We have never campaigned in Adampur. We just go to the people and meet them over some tea and coffee," says Bishnoi.

Lal says that he has visited all 62 villages in the constituency in the last few weeks. "Now the party agents are fully active in every nook and corner. People know about my work, thousands have got jobs during my tenure and many dispensaries and schools have come up in Adampur," he adds.

Exudes Bishnoi, "My father had defeated Ganeshi Lal, the combined BJP-INLD candidate, by over 40,000 votes in the 2000 Assembly elections. He got nearly 70 per cent of the total votes and the margin of victory will be even more this time."

Their confidence does not seem misplaced. Lal may belong to the Bishnoi community, who number only about 16,000 in the constituency, but the 50,000-strong Jat community is backing him to the hilt.

Says Vijender Singh of Hindwan village, "Chowdhury Sahab (Lal) does not need to come to ask votes from us. Everyone in this constituency wants him to become the Chief Minister again."

If this happens, it will be the fourth time that Lal will take oath as Chief Minister of the state and though he is not saying it openly, his candidature for the post seems to be the only item on the electoral agenda for the Congress in Adampur Mandi.

Though a host of names are being thrown up for the top post from within the Congress itself - including those of O P Jindal, Birender Singh, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Bhupinder Singh Hooda - Lal is clearly one of the prime contenders.