CHANDIGARH : Former Haryana unit president of Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) Nishan Singh is all set to join the Congress. This makes the fight on the Sisra (reserved) Lok Sabha seat in the state more interesting.
Former Union minister and Ex-Haryana Congress unit president Kumari Selja is pitched against Ashok Tanwar of the BJP, who was earlier the state Congress chief.
The JJP is the former coalition partner of the BJP in the state. Sources said Nishan Singh may join Congress on April 29 with his supporters. Singh had, a few days ago, met former chief minister and leader of the opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda. A close aide of him claimed that along with Singh, JJP workers from Sirsa, Fetehabad, Hisar and other districts will also join the grand old party.
Singh was JJP’s state unit president ever since the party’s formation in 2018. He is a former MLA of Tohana assembly segment in Fatehabad district. He won from the Tohana seat in 2000 as an Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate and consecutively lost thrice in 2005, 2009 and 2014.
In the 2019 assembly elections, JJP nominated former Congress leader Devender Singh Babli, who won after defeating the then BJP state chief Subhash Barala.
Sources said Singh’s chances of joining the Congress hinge on an assurance of getting an assembly election ticket from Tohana. The assembly polls are due later this year. Tohana assembly seat is a part of the Sirsa parliamentary constituency.
Singh was seen as a trusted ally of former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala. He had personally conveyed his decision to quit the party to the JJP’s national president Ajay Chautala.
In January this year, former Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar quit the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and joined the BJP. Tanwar was chairman of AAP’s state election campaign committee and he had opposed AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to have alliance with Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.
An SC leader, Tanwar is a former MP from Sirsa and a former Haryana Congress president who resigned from the party in 2019 and switched to the Trinamool Congress in November 2021.
Singh meets Hooda
Sources said Nishan Singh may join Congress on April 29 with his supporters. Singh had, a few days ago, met former chief minister and leader of the opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda. A close aide of him claimed that along with Singh, JJP workers from Sirsa, Fetehabad, Hisar and other districts will also join Congress.
Vying for Tohana
Nishan Singh won from the Tohana seat in 2000 as an INLD candidate, but lost thrice in 2005, 2009 and 2014. In the 2019 assembly polls, JJP fielded Devender Singh Babli from the seat. Sources said Singh’s chances of joining the Congress hinge on an assurance of getting an assembly election ticket from Tohana.
The Sirsa contest
Former Union minister and Ex-Haryana Congress unit president Kumari Selja is pitched against Ashok Tanwar of the BJP, earlier the state Congress chief