Bhajan Lal faces namesake in polls to Hisar

Hisar (Haryana), May 6, 2009:Shakespeare's Juliet Montague
wondered: 'What's in a name'? Ask Haryana's former chief
minister Bhajan Lal and he would tell why a name matters.
Bhajan Lal, 78, has all reasons to be jittery as he enters
the Lok Sabha polls from Hisar where he faces an independent
who is his namesake.
The problem is not many voters would know this Bhajan Lal
from the other.
The Haryana Janhit Congress nominee and veteran leader
Bhajan Lal, 78, had left the Congress in 2005 after losing the
race for the chief minister to Hooda. He was elected to the
Assembly nine times and twice to the Lok Sabha.
On the other hand 47-year-old independent candidate
Bhajan Lal is contesting Lok Sabha election for the first
time.
All three major parties -- Congress, Indian National Lok
Dal and Haryana Janhit Congress -- blames each other for
fielding dummy and namesake candidates to confuse voters.
"It is the Congress and INLD strategy to field a dummy
and namesake candidates. But they do not know that the voters
are more aware these days and know the election symbols of all
the candidates. It is simply an attempt to spread chaos and
confusion," Bhajan Lal told PTI.
The INLD, however, refutes the allegations. "We are not
into this business...Infact, it is Bhajan Lal who has fielded
his namesake to justify his loss in the election, which is
almost certain this time," party's Lok Sabha candidate Sampat
Singh said.
Similarly, Congress nominee and sitting MP Jai Prakash
also disowned the allegations. "Why will we field namesake
candidates. There is no need to do so. People are well aware
of the work done by the Congress party in the state and would
exercise their franchise accordingly," Jai Prakash claimed.
Besides Bhajan Lal, there are two other independent
candidates who share the same name-Chhotu Ram.
There are about 12 lakh voters in the Hisar constituency
who will exercise their franchise tomorrow to choose their
representative out of the total 38 candidates, including 27
independent candidates.
All the ten constituencies in Haryana will go to polls
tomorrow.