Congress stalwart Selja's win to boost her stature in Haryana politics

Chandigarh, Jun 4 (PTI) A prominent Dalit face of the Congress in Haryana, Kumari Selja's win from the Sirsa Lok Sabha seat on Tuesday will further increase her stature in Haryana politics, with assembly polls in the state a few months away.

Selja, 61, trounced BJP's Ashok Tanwar by a margin of 2,68,497 from the Sirsa reserved seat. With this, she became the only seventh woman in Haryana, which was carved out as a separate state in 1966, to enter the lower house of Parliament.

Winning Sirsa this time was a sort of homecoming for Selja after over two decades. She had been MP from this seat earlier.

Interestingly, both Selja and Tanwar have been presidents of the Haryana Congress. After leaving the Congress a few years ago, Tanwar crossed over to a few other parties, including the AAP, and then joined the BJP this year.

In the 2024 general elections, 223 candidates were in the fray for the 10 Lok Sabha in Haryana and out of them 16 were women.

Before Selja's latest win, Haryana in the 58 years of its existence has elected only six women parliamentarians. In the 2014 general elections, not even a single woman candidate could manage to win in the state.

Chandravati, a former Janta Party leader became the first-ever woman MP from the state in 1977. Shruti Chaudhary, the granddaughter of former chief minister Chaudhary Bansi Lal, was elected as an MP in the 2009 general elections from the Bhiwani-Mahendargarh constituency.

In the 1999 elections, the state sent two women MPs to Lok Sabha -- BJP's Sudha Yadav from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh and Kailasho Saini of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) from Kurukshetra.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Selja lost to Rattan Lal Kataria of the BJP from Ambala, while Tanwar, who was then with the Congress, lost to BJP's Sunita Duggal from Sirsa.

Following the general election results, Selja is likely to play an important role in shaping the Congress' campaign for the Assembly election slated to be held in October.

After her victory, Selja said she will always be indebted to the people of Sirsa and her priority will be to provide development, education and health facilities in the area.

The Congress leader said the electorate of the Sirsa Lok Sabha constituency has always given their blessings, cooperation and support to her and she can never repay the debt of this love and affection.

The former Union minister said her victory is the result of public anger against the BJP's "anti-people" policies. The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi made false promises to the public and now the people have shown the mirror to those who made false promises, she said.

Selja, who is a Congress Working Committee member, served as a Union minister in the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government. She did her MA and MPhil in English from Panjab University, Chandigarh.

She began her political career in the Mahila Congress in 1990 and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Sirsa in 1991 and again in 1996. The daughter of former Union minister late Chaudhary Dalbir Singh, Selja is a four-time Lok Sabha MP, twice each from Sirsa and Ambala.

She won the Ambala seat in 2004 and 2009. In 2014, Selja was nominated to Rajya Sabha while in 2019, she lost from Ambala. PTI SUN NSD NSD