A royal servant

The delay in the declaration of his candidature this time only added to the hype around Rao Inderjeet. Not only his political opponents, it was as if an entire parliamentary constituency waited with bated breath for him to get the Congress ticket. And when he finally did, the euphoria generated across the constituency would have led one to believe that he had already won the elections. That is the kind of influence the Rao family wields here.

But it is not just his family name that he is banking on this time. ‘‘The so-called ‘dynasty’ helped me win my first elections. But that was it. It was only my work which got me votes in the subsequent years,’’ says Rao Inderjeet.

He also dismisses the charges that his high-class background is his biggest hurdle. ‘‘The fact that I have royalty in my blood hasn’t got me a negative image. People may dub me an elitist but the fact remains that it is the rural mass and not the urban middle-class that has voted for me in the past,’’ he tells you.

‘‘But things have changed. BJP’s policies have hit the middle-class the hardest and it is this section that is increasingly gravitating towards the Congress,’’ he says.

Rao, predictably, prefers to stick to his old vote bank. His election rallies and tours are mainly targeted at rural votes in remote villages of Mahendragarh, Narnaul and Rewari and not in urban areas like Gurgaon. ‘‘Rural areas comprise 80 per cent votes here so where else can I be?’’ he asks. The issues he talks about are also the ones concerning the bulk of ‘‘his voters.’’

‘‘Water has been the biggest problem here. But unlike others, I am not promising SYL waters to people. My focus will be to ensure equitable distribution of existing canal water in the state,’’ says Rao Inderjeet. Education is another of his poll-planks. ‘‘A district like Hisar has three universities while the entire South Haryana doesn’t have a single one. I will try to get a medical university opened here,’’ he promises.

‘‘I would try to get a legislation made to ensure that the progeny of those whose lands are acquired are at least given Class IV jobs. Also, I would get another legislation made to increase the amount of compensation given to farmers, whose lands are acquired,’’ he says.

But once on an election platform, Rao Inderjeet doesn’t restrict himself to local issues. He talks of how ‘‘the BJP became a puppet in the hands of USA’’ and how ‘‘they destroyed the very social fabric of our society by using the Ram Mandir issue for political gains.’’

‘‘How can you trust a man like Vajpayee who speaks with a forked tongue?’’ he asks.