CHANDIGARH: The BJP has named six new faces in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Hisar, Sirsa and Sonepat districts of Haryana while reposing trust in its old warhorses in Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, Rohtak, Gurugram and Faridabad for the Lok Sabha elections.
With more than 50% per cent of its candidates being turncoats, the party depends on them to win the polls in the state. The saffron party has declared all the ten candidates in the state.
In a surprise move, 53-year-old industrialist Naveen Jindal, former -- a two-time Congress MP – who recently joined the BJP, is being fielded from Kurukshetra. Nayab Singh Saini, the Haryana Chief Minister, was the sitting MP from Kurukshetra. He won from Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat in 2004 and 2009 on a Congress ticket. Also, former Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar, who had joined AAP, has joined the BJP after quitting AAP. He has been given a ticket from Sirsa as the party dropped Sunita Duggal, a first-time MP.
Besides, independent MLA from the Rania assembly segment and state cabinet minister in Saini cabinet Ranjit Singh Chautala has been given a ticket from Hisar after he was inducted into the party fold after the sitting party MP from Hisar Brijendra Singh resigned and joined the Congress. Chautala was a Rajya Sabha MP in 1990 and a two-time MLA in 1987 and 2019. He is the son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal and brother of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) president and former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala.
Former CM Manohar Lal Khattar has been fielded after he resigned in a sudden change of guard as he has been the CM for the past nine-and-a-half years. While Banto Kataria, wife of former MP Rattan Lal Kataria, who died, has been given a ticket from Ambala by the party, she is the only woman candidate in the list of ten candidates.
Also, Mohan Lal Badoli, sitting MLA from the Rai assembly segment is the party candidate for the Sonepat Lok Sabha seat, replacing Ramesh Chander Kaushik, the two-time MP.
The BJP has given tickets to four sitting MPs: Rao Inderjit Singh Yadav from Gurgaon, Krishan Pal Gurjar from Faridabad, Chaudhary Dharambir from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh and Arvind Kumar Sharma from Rohtak.
Alliance with JJP ended
The alliance between the BJP and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in Haryana came to an end recently leading to the resignation of Manohar Lal Khattar from the CM’s post. Former deputy CM Dushyant Chautala and other cabinet ministers too stepped down from their post and new government under the leadership of Nayab Singh Saini was reinstated.