Chandigarh: In its list of 67 of the total 90 candidates announced on Wednesday for upcoming October 5 Haryana assembly election, the BJP has rewarded at least 10 party hoppers, dropped several sitting ministers and MLAs and given ticket to several political dynasts.
Even though the list has sprung several surprises, the most notable one is to shift chief minister Nayab Saini from Karnal to Ladwa assembly segment of Kurukshetra district; the party has now fielded a greenhorn Jagmohan Anand, a Punjabi face and a loyalist of former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar from Karnal, currently represented by Saini.
Though much to the chagrin of its several home-grown leaders, the party has rewarded at least 10 turncoats from Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), Congress and other parties; they include Devender Babli, for Tohana segment, Sanjay Kablana, Beri, Ram Kumar Gautam, Safidon, Nikhil Madan, Sonepat, Anoop Dhanak, Uklana, Shyam Singh Rana, Radaur, Shruti Choudhry, Toshan, Shakti Rani Sharma, Kalka and Sunil Sangwan for Dadri segment; notably, Sunil Sangwan, who is son of former Congress minister Satpal Sangwan, had recently resigned as prisons official, who had granted parole six times to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
The political dynasts given the party tickets include Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh’s daughter Arti Singh Rao (from Ateli), Shruti Choudhary (Tosham), former Congress MP and daughter of former senior Congress leader Kiran Choudhry; the latter had recently joined BJP and was elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed. Another dynast is Bhavya Bishnoi, son of Kuldeep Bishnoi (son of former chief minister late Bhajan Lal), named for Adampur seat.
Surprisingly, the party has also fielded Shakti Rani Sharma from Kalka; the Mayor of Ambala MC, Shakti Rani is wife of former Union minister and Congress leader Venod Sharma, who had floated his own Haryana Jan Chetna Party after quitting from Congress; Her younger son Kartikeya Sharma is Rajya Sabha member and elder son Manu Sharma is model Jessica Lal’s murder convict.
Among the sitting MLAs dropped this time and who include three ministers – are Ranjit Chautala, Bishambar Valmiki, Sanjay Singh and former sports minister Sandeep Singh, who faced allegations of sexual sexual harassment by a woman coach. Others include Nirmal Rani, Sudhir Singla and Deepak Mangla. Also missing from the list include party’s OBC wing president Karan Dev Kamboj and Krishan Bedi, both former ministers.
Notably, the saffron party has also chosen sitting Rajya Sabha MP Krishan Panwar to fight from Israna segment while it has also fielded former four-time MP Arvind Sharma who lost to Congress’ Deepender Hooda from Rohtak in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
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