Shimla, Nov 4
The BJP sitting MLA Paramjeet Singh Pammi is facing a direct contest in the industrial hub Doon assembly constituency of Solan district. People of the industrial belt and the hills around are showing a solid response to the Congress candidates Ram Kumar Chaudhary who was a member of the Assembly from 2012-2017.
In 2017 BJP candidate Param Jeet Singh Pammi won this seat. Pammi and Ram Kumar are in the fray this time too. It might be a tough fight this time, too, between both candidates. A large part of the Industrial belt of Baddi – Barotiwala and Nalagarh lies in the Doon constituency.
Former congress leader late Lajja Ram, had a firm grip on the people of this constituency, and from 1990 to 2007 he represented this constituency. He was considered robust in the State Congress and an active rival of the former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s camp. It was only in the 2007 Vidhan Sabha elections that BJP won this seat for the first time. BJP candidate Vinod Kumari Chandal won this seat, but in the 2012 assembly elections, she lost to congress Candidate Ram Kumar, son of former Congres leader Lajja Ram.
The worst thing which may affect the ruling saffron candidate is the public disconnect. One of the largest villages AC Patta, where residents informed that it is barely any time left for polling in the assembly, and yet, the sitting MLA has not visited their village, once. They said he was also hardly visible in the rural areas in the last five years. They complained that he had always tried to keep his distance from them, and sometimes when people tried to meet up, he posed unavailability.
The primary issue in the rural area is a good road and drinking and irrigation water schemes as the existing schemes are insufficient to meet the increased water demands. Mohit Gupta, a resident of Patta, lamented that the area’s youth remain in dire need of issue if DO notes to get jobs in private industries of the area. However, the MLA could not do so; moreover, the management in the industries, too, hardly bothered to oblige his additional efforts of making calls to them.
The profile of the Doon constituency has Male voters-37165 and Female 33976 and 3rd gender -2. There are total 71141 voters. The Constituency is divided into urban and rural areas.
The urban voters are lesser in number because most living there are migrants and other industrial workers, either from other states and districts of Himachal or from out of state. In the rural areas, there are some big villages like Chandi, Gharsi, Patta and Sandoli, which constitute the major chunk of electoral. Congress have a stronghold in the rural areas, whereas the BJP rely upon the urban votes.
