‘There is hardly any village in Kalka seat which was not visited by Chaudhary’

Sajjan Singh of Manak Tabbra village near Pinjore said, “Chaudhary was unbeatable last time also when he had contested the elections from Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) ticket in 2014. But that time, Modi wave did work in the favor of Latika Sharma, who won the seat with a margin of over 19,000 votes. But this time, there was no Modi Wave. Chaudhary maintained his typical style of politics throughout the last five years. There is hardly any village in our Kalka assembly seat, which was not visited by Chaudhary. The votes from Gujjar and Saini communities played a huge role in Chaudhary’s win.”

A close scrutiny of voting trend in Kalka assembly seat suggests that though Latika Sharma managed to take advantage of votes in Pinjore and Kalka towns, in the rural areas, people mostly seem to have supported Chaudhary.

Latika Sharma, who lost to Pardeep Chaudhary with 5,931 votes, was leading during the counting for four rounds – between 8 and 12 – while the rest of the rounds were dominated by Pardeep Chaudhary.

Sanjay Sharma, a Kalka-based trader, said, “Approximately 32,000 votes in Kalka seat belong to Gujjar community, which is a strong voter base for Chaudhary. Latika has more support from the Brahmin community, which is widespread in Raipur-Doon, Mallha and Morni hills. The defeat proved that Latika failed to make her grip among the voters of Chaudhary.” Although, the newly-formed JJP also fielded its candidate Kiran Chaudhary, who belongs to Gujjar community, she only secured 7,739 votes.

There are other issues also, which give advantage to Pardeep Chaudhary. Aman Chaudhary, son of Pardeep Chaudhary, said, “The unprofessional approach of BJP candidate for tackling the problem of illegal mining, protection to criminals settled in Kalka and Pinjore from neighboring areas included Baddi, Nalagarh etc were issues during this election.”

Notably, Gumthala village, which had boycotted the parliamentary election in May this year, only decided to vote this time because of Pardeep Chaudhary. As many as 109 voters out of total 112 from the village cast their votes on October 21. Majority of villagers are of Gujjar community.