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Updated: Oct 15, 2019 02:41 IST

Union home minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah last week chose Kaithal in northwestern Haryana to address his first rally ahead of the October 21 polls in the state. Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Krishan Pal Gurjar have since followed suit, underscoring Kaithal’s importance to the BJP as it seeks to wrest the constituency from the Congress’s Randeep Singh Surjewala.

From Shah to local BJP candidate Lila Ram Gurjar, the ruling party has picked on Surjewala, the Congress’s chief spokesperson, over his comments on issues such as the nullification of Article 370. Shah described the Centre’s move to revoke the special status of Jammu & Kashmir as “historic”, and called Surjewala the face of the Congress’s opposition to the ruling party’s “one nation, one Constitution” plank.

Gurjar has stepped up the attack. “Woh [Surjewala] desh-dirohi hai [is anti-national],” Gurjar, a former legislator who joined the BJP in 2014, told a gathering as he canvassed in the constituency on Sunday. “See this video,” Gurjar added, pointing to his mobile phone as he played Surjewala’s purported comments on Article 370.

Gurjar insisted that Surjewala opposed the removal of Article 370, and the Congress would reintroduce it if it returned to power at the Centre. “You would have also heard his [Surjewala] comments on the [February 14] Pulwama [attack on a paramilitary convoy in Kashmir] and Balakot [India’s retaliatory air strike in Bakistan],” Gurjar said, without specifying what the comments were.

Surjewala, who is seeking his third term from Kaithal, has sought to counter the BJP’s attacks by calling Gurjar’s tenure as an Indian National Lok Dal lawmaker from Kaithal between 2000 and 2005 an “era of criminal terror”.

“Do not forget the period between 2000 and 2005, when Lila Ram was our MLA [member legislative assembly]. The city was not safe for anyone after dark. Businessmen used to get regular extortion calls and some of them were even murdered in broad daylight when they refused to pay,” Surjewala told a gathering on Sunday.

Surjewala called himself a “wall against fear” in his speech that was mostly dedicated to Gurjar’s tenure. He spoke about the development works he and his father, Shamsher Singh Surjewala, have carried out as the representatives of Kaithal for the last 15 years.

Harishchandra Punjabi, a local businessman, acknowledged that Surjewala has done a lot for infrastructure development and helped improve law-and-order.

Another resident, Subhash Kalka, echoed Punjabi and added that Surjewala had vision for the development of the city, which he has “implemented”. “Roads are good and even villages have drainage systems,” he said.

But another businessman, Rajeshwar Goyal, said that Surjewala has been inaccessible to people and did not stand with them especially during the violent 2016 Jat agitation for reservation to the community under the Other Backward Class category.

According to assessments conducted by the BJP and the Congress, Jats account for about 20% of Kaithal’s voters, while backward communities such as Ahirwals and Yadavs are about 40%. Punjabis make up about 10% of the electorate, Brahmins and Banias 12%, and about 10% are Scheduled Castes such as Valmikis.

The Congress communication department secretary Vinit Punia said that Gurjar’s comments showed that the BJP has nothing to offer despite being in power for five years in Haryana.

“The BJP in Haryana is disastrous and disappointing... The people are intelligent and can see through their game plan. The economy has nosedived, businesses have perished, unemployment is at an all-time high and the law and order have collapsed,’’ he said. Punia accused the BJP of trying to distract the people from these real issues through a “false narrative” on national issues.

Ranveer Parashar, a local journalist and political analyst, called the campaign for the 2019 assembly polls in Kaithal the most bitter of all. “Never before, have I heard the language that is being used here. The Congress is accusing the BJP candidate of harbouring criminals whereas the BJP is calling Surjewala anti-national.”