3 Chautalas in fray as AAP-JJP fields Digvijay from Sonepat

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 22

The Jannayak Janta Party-Aam Aadmi Party alliance on Monday announced candidates for the Sonepat, Kurukshetra and Gurgaon Lok Sabha seats. Digvijay Chautala, younger brother of Dushyant Chautala, has been nominated from Sonepat seat. He is pitted against former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress, sitting BJP MP Ramesh Chander Kaushik and Indian National Lok Dal’s Surender Chikara.

With Digvijay in the fray, there are now three Chautalas contesting the Lok Sabha elections. The other two are his brother Dushyant, who is contesting from Hisar, and his cousin (Abhay Chautala’s son) Arjun, who is fighting from Kurukshetra.

Digvijay, 28, national president of the JJP’s student wing Indian National Students Organisation (INSO), had earlier this year fought the Jind Assembly bypoll. He came second with over 37,000 votes. It was the first election of the JJP after its formation in December 2018. Congress national spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had come third. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) finished fifth with just over 3,000 votes and a number of its leaders and workers has since switched over to the JJP.

Digvijay has been heading the INSO since 2013 and ran a movement for allowing student elections in the state.

The JJP, which is contesting on seven of the 10 seats in Haryana in an alliance with AAP, announced former corporate honcho Mehmood Khan from Gurgaon. Having an experience of 42 years in the corporate sector, Khan retired as global leader from Unilever. For the last few years, he has been working in his home district Nuh. He passed out from IIM-Ahemdabad in 1977. He will be contesting against Rao Inderjeet of the BJP, Ajay Singh Yadav of the Congress and INLD’s Virender Rana, who is a software company owner.

From Kurukshetra, the JJP has given ticket to Jaibhagwan Sharma, 57. He took a plunge into student politics when he was studying at Kurukshetra University. He contested the 2014 Haryana Assembly elections on the BJP ticket from Pehowa, receiving close to 40,000 votes and coming second. He lost by 9,347 votes. In November 2018, he resigned from the BJP. He will be contesting against Nirnal Singh of the Congress, Nayab Singh Saini of the BJP and Arjun Chautala of the INLD.

With today’s announcements, the JJP-AAP alliance has named all 10 candidates. Besides Dushyant, the JJP had on April 18 named Swati Yadav from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Pradeep Deswal from Rohtak and Nirmal Singh Malhari from Sirsa.

On April 21, AAP had announced the names of former Himachal Pradesh DGP Prithvi Raj from Ambala, state president Naveen Jaihind from Faridabad and Krishan Kumar Aggarwal from Karnal.

Gurgaon candidate from corporate sector 

Digvijay Chautala, 28, national president of the JJP’s student wing Indian National Students Organisation (INSO), had earlier this year fought the Jind Assembly bypoll. He came second with over 37,000 votes while Congress leader Randeep Surjewala took the third position and the INLD came fifth. Digvijay has been heading the INSO since 2013 and ran a movement for allowing student elections in the state.

Mehmood Khan, 64, a former corporate honcho, has been announced from Gurgaon. He has an experience of 42 years in the corporate sector, retiring as global leader from Unilever. For the last few years, he has been working in his home district Nuh. He passed out from IIM-Ahmedabad in 1977. 

Jaibhagwan Sharma, 57, has been fielded from Kurukshetra. He contested the 2014 Haryana Assembly elections on the BJP ticket from Pehowa, receiving close to 40,000 votes and came second. In November 2018, he resigned from the BJP.