Chandigarh: The ruling BJP withdrew its candidate Rohtash Jangra from Sirsa assembly segment on Monday and decided to back its "ally’’ Gopal Kanda of Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP), on Monday, the last day to withdraw the nominations.
The move came as a surprise to many, as Abhay Chautala-led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), a rival of BJP, had only on Thursday, extended support to Kanda, ending a 15-year old feud with Kanda; while Abhay, a Jat leader is a four-time MLA, Kanda, a Baniya, is two-time MLA. Sirsa district which has a substantial chunk of Jat votes, also has major chunks of Baniya, Dalit and Punjabi votes.
With this development, like Congress, the BJP is also now contesting 89 of the total 90 assembly seats in the state; for record, the Congress has left Bhiwani seat for CPI-M.
Asked for his reaction over the BJP-Kanda truck, Abhay said he would have to talk to Kanda in the context before making any comment.
Kanda, initially a confidante of Chautala family, had sided with Congress’ Bhupinder Singh Hooda in 2009 which caused a bitter animosity of INLD against him. He, however, also later faced legal battles related to the 2012 Geetika Sharma (an air hostess in Kanda’s the then MDLR Airlines) suicide case and was also jailed. He was later acquitted of all charges.
Though BJP was interested in having an alliance with Kanda in the 2019 election, the party leadership refused to do so in the wake of the controversy mentioned above. However, Kanda still extended support to the BJP which, with 40 MLAs, had failed to have a majority in the 90-member assembly. Kanda parted ways this time after the saffron party fielded its own candidate from Sirsa seat.
Polling for the 90 Assembly seats in Haryana will be held on October 5 and votes will be counted on October 8. The BJP which is eyeing a hattrick faces a stiff fight from Congress which is looking to cash in on BJP's anti-incumbency factor.
