CHANDIGARH: Congress is contesting on 89 seats out of a total 90 assembly segments in the Haryana assembly elections as it has left the Bhiwani seat for the INDIA bloc ally Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The Congress party, late on Wednesday night, released its fourth list of five candidates. It fielded journalist Sarva Mitra Kamboj from Rania assembly segment in Sirsa, who had recently joined the party. Parimal Pari from Ambala Cantt, youth leader Sachin Kundu from Panipat Rural, Satbir Dublain from the Narwana (SC) seat and Rohit Nagar from Tigaon were the other candidates in the list.
On Thursday morning, it released the fifth and the last list of two candidates—Naresh Selwal from Uklana (SC-reserved) and Jasbir Singh from the Narnaund seat. From Uklana, Member of Parliament Kumari Selja was keen to contest.
In the final list, the party announced the candidature of Rohtash Khatana, who was previously associated with THE JJP, from Sohna and left the Bhiwani seat for the CPI(M).
The party had engaged in seat-sharing talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the Haryana polls which hit a deadlock following hard bargaining from both sides. Since then, the AAP has released multiple lists of its candidates.
Rebellion
Hours after releasing its final list of candidates for the Haryana Assembly election, the Congress faced a rebellion on Thursday as some of its leaders decided to enter the poll fray as independents. These include former state minister Sampat Singh from Nalwa, former MLAs Lalit Nagar from Tigaon and Sharda Rathore from Ballabhgarh. Other aspirants who have entered the contest as independents include Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantonment) an Rohita Rewri (Panipat City).
Former MLA Ram Kishan “Fauji”, a ticket aspirant from Bawani Khera, has also filed his nomination as an independent. After the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress too is facing resentment in Haryana from those who have been denied tickets.
Some of the aspirants broke down after being denied tickets. A tearful Lalit Nagar said even though he had worked hard to strengthen the Congress in Haryana, he was “stabbed in the back”.
Addressing a gathering of his supporters in Faridabad’s Tigaon, he said, “I had invited all of you thinking that I will perform a ‘havan’ and then go to file my nomination as a Congress candidate. But some of our enemies have conspired and attempted to commit my political murder.”