Panchkula Assembly election 2024: The Panchkula Assembly constituency is gearing up to be a high-stakes battle in the upcoming elections, as Congress leader Chander Mohan challenges BJP's incumbent MP Gyan Chand Gupta, who is aiming for a third consecutive victory. Gupta, who is also the Haryana Assembly Speaker, won the seat in both the 2014 and 2019 Assembly elections. MORE COVERAGE ON HARYANA ELECTIONS
Key candidates
The key candidates for the Panchkula seat are BJP leader and Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, Congress party leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan, Dr Kshitij Choudhary from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Prem Garg from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and Sushil Garg from the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). The JJP is allied with the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) in the state, while the INLD has partnered with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
BJP, Congress, and AAP are contesting the elections on their own and no pre-poll alliance has been formed. Congress and AAP held alliance talks, however, decided to go solo after discussion on seat-sharing failed to materialise.
Panchkula Assembly Constituency
The Panchkula Assembly constituency is one of the 90 constituencies in the Haryana Legislative Assembly. It is constituency number 47 of the Haryana Legislative Assembly. The constituency is a general seat not reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). Panchkula is an assembly constituency which is part of the Ambala Lok Sabha constituency. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) are the main parties in the constituency. Gian Chand Gupta from BJP currently represents the Panchkula seat.
Panchkula Assembly constituency in Haryana holds significant political importance, particularly in the Jat-dominated regions of the state. It is known for its agricultural landscape and has a mix of rural and semi-urban populations. The constituency is predominantly Jat but also has a significant number of Scheduled Castes and other communities.
Panchkula Constituency Demographic Profile
As per data from the Election Commission, there were 2,10,149 voters in the Panchkula constituency during the 20219 Assembly Elections. Out of this, 1,11,479 were male and 98,664 were female voters. No voter belonged to the third gender. 77 postal votes were cast in the constituency. The number of service voters in Panchkula in 2019 was 376 (334 men and 42 women).
In 2014, the total number of voters in the Panchkula constituency was 1,95,974. Out of this, 1,04,110 voters were male and 91,864 were female voters. There were 14 valid postal votes in the constituency. The number of service voters in Panchkula in 2014 was 286 (189 men and 97 women).
What happened in the 2019 and 2014 Assembly Elections?
In 2014, BJP's Gian Chand Gupta won the election, defeating Indian National Lok Dal's (INLD) Kul Bhushan Goyal by a margin of 44,602 votes. The BJP candidate got 69,916 votes with a vote share of 54.29 per cent while the INLD candidate received 25,314 votes with a vote share of 19.66 per cent. Congress' Devender Kumar Bansal came third with 15,564 votes (12.09 per cent).
In 2019, BJP's Gian Chand Gupta won the seat again, defeating Congress' Chander Mohan by a margin of 5,633 votes. The BJP leader received 61,537 votes with a share of 48.84 per cent while Congress' Mohan got 55,904 votes with a vote share of 44.37 per cent. INLD's Karundeep Chaudhry came third with only 2,342 (1.86 per cent)
Haryana Assembly Elections
Haryana will go to Assembly Elections on October 5 and the counting of votes will be done on October 8, along with those of Jammu and Kashmir polls. In the 2019 Assembly polls in Haryana, the BJP became the single-largest party with 40 seats and Congress won 31 seats in the 90-seated Assembly.
