Adampur (Hisar): For the last over 50 years, former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal’s family has not lost the assembly seat in Adampur. This constituency in the district of Hisar has been a family pocket borough. Lal himself won the seat nine times, his son and current MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi twice and two of the family’s women members once each.Bu this time, fate may have other things in store as a tough challenger has emerged: BJP’s Mahila Morcha vice president and TikTok star Sonali Phogat.In the familyOn paper, Bishnoi, who won the last assembly election by defeating Kulveer Singh Beniwal of Indian National Lok Dal by 39,508 votes, should have no problems sailing through. But what appears to be rocking the boat is the fact that other parties like Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party are softening the ground by launching sharp attacks on Bishnoi.At the office of JJP candidate Ramesh Godara, the party’s block president Bharat Singh Beniwal said that Bishnoi has failed to develop the constituency. “On the other hand our candidate has been with Lok Dal since Chaudhary Devi Lal’s time in 1982. He was the youngest sarpanch and district council head,” he proclaimed.JJP leader Bharat Singh Beniwal. Photo: Bazil Ashrafi‘Bishnoi is a diamond trader, stays abroad,’ charges JJPAs for Bishnoi, he said, “he is a diamantaire, or diamond trader, who spends most of his time abroad and seldom visits the constituency. He is least bothered by the fact that Adampur residents are facing an acute water crisis. When Bhajan Lal was CM or Union Minister he used to get water to the constituency through nearby canals. Bishnoi did nothing.”Beniwal said “people will vote for Chautala’s party because they remember how Dushyant drove a tractor to Parliament to protest imposition of GST on its sales. It was Devi Lal who exempted tractors from sales tax but Modi brought them under GST.”The constituency has about 1,80,000 voters of which around 24,000 are Bishnois. Therefore JJP insists the Lal clan cannot take the voters for granted.‘BJP governments stalling work to discredit Bishnoi’A little distance away at Bishnoi’s office, the mood is quite upbeat. After all, he polled 47.1% votes in the last elections when he contested as a candidate of Haryana Janhit Congress (Bhajan Lal), a party floated by his father in 2005 after Congress decided to make Bhupinder Singh Hooda the chief minister instead of him following a resounding victory in the Assembly elections. This time, the Congress believes Bishnoi will improve his tally.Congress state general secretary Sanjay Kumar Soni insisted that Bishnoi has provided water and sewer line connectivity worth by spending Rs 36 crore. He added that the BJP governments in Haryana and Centre have deliberately been putting hurdles in the way of further development to discredit Bishnoi.‘BJP candidate attacked girl students unfairly’Sonali Phogat. Photo: Bazil AshrafiSoni also attacked Sonali Phogat for speaking ill to college students during an event at Balsamand village. She was reported rebuking them for not repeating “Bharat Mata ki jai” after her and asking them, “Are you Pakistanis”. The issue was widely reported in the media.The Congress leader said “the real reason behind Phogat’s irritation was that the college girls questioned her about her maternal grandfather’s family not releasing a plot for a new girls’ college in the area. When they demanded that they be allowed to speak from her stage, Phogat got annoyed, raised slogans and made the uncharitable remark.”“Cut portions of controversial ‘Pakistani’ statement were shown”When asked about this issue by The Wire in Kharia village, Phogat said “that matter about the land is in court and it is sub-judice”. She insisted that cut portions of her statement were shown by a channel.About the land case, she said, the matter is pending in court and that she would appeal to the government to open a college for girls at the earliest. As for “Bharat Mata ki jai”, she insisted that it was a slogan which should be raised and there was no harm in doing so.‘Our priority will be water supply’Phogat also attacked Bishnoi saying he does not stay in the region and is not aware of people’s problems. “He stays in London. I want to work for people and get them proper water supply. Also, we have to make roads in the villages permanent. BJP government has spent Rs 700 crore in this area. Our priority will be water.”Sonali said she is also appealing to the young voters to realise the power of their vote and to break the shackles of a dynastic rule and vote for a government that has worked with honesty and provided 70,000 government jobs in a transparent manner.