With both the INLD and the HJC promising to abandon or shift the controversial Gorakhpur nuclear plant if voted to power, detractors of the project are now looking for a commitment on the issue. Residents of villages around the proposed site will meet Union Minister Sushma Swaraj, who is coming to Fatehabad tomorrow to address a rally for BJP nominee Swatantar Bala Chaudhary. “BJP leaders Maneka Gandhi and VK Singh and their close associate Baba Ramdev had come to us and pledged to back our demand to shift this hazardous plant from Gorakhpur, if voted to power. They have not spoken a word on this issue after that. We will give a memorandum to Swaraj and ask her to specify the party’s stand,” said Vinod Karwasara, an animal right activist, whose organisation Jeev Avm Paryavaran Morcha has been opposing the project. The state government got the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to lay the stone of the project in haste in January in view of the impending Lok Sabha polls, though some clearances were pending before the National Green Tribunal. Many locals had held protests opposing the project during the PM’s visit. Residents of villages around the project, most of whom are from the Bishnoi community, accuse the Hooda government of giving this “hazardous” and “water-guzzling” project to Fatehabad, while major projects that benefit local residents were located in his own Rohtak and Jhajjar districts. Parmanu Virodhi Morcha, a coalition of organisations opposed to nuclear power projects, has given a call to the people to vote for parties that promise to scrap the project. The morcha headed a campaign against the project in Fatehabad and Hisar district, as the project could affect the people of at least six Assembly segments (Fatehabad, Ratia, Tohana, Uklana, Adampur and Barwala) even in case of a minor disaster.