BJP fields Inderjit’s daughter Aarti Rao, JJP reposes faith in Narbir’s niece from Ateli

The Ateli Assembly constituency is set to witness a keen battle with the BJP fielding Aarti Rao, daughter of Union minister and influential Ahir leader Rao Inderjit, and the JJP making Aayushi Yadav, niece of former minister and BJP leader Rao Narbir Singh, as its nominee from here.

It will be Aarti’s debut election. However, she had also tried for the BJP ticket in the 2019 Assembly elections. This time, Aarti had already announced to contest the poll but she kept the name of the constituency secret. However, she had stated that Ateli is one of the two segments from where she is contemplating to contest the Assembly polls.

There are 2,02,154 voters in Ateli. Out of these, 1,06,199 are men and 95,955 are women

Aarti is an international-level skeet shooter and has won four Asian championship medals. Currently, she is president of the Haryana Para Sports Association. She is granddaughter of former Haryana Chief Minister Rao Birender Singh and descendant of Ahir king and freedom fighter Rao Tula Ram Singh.

The party has dropped sitting BJP MLA Sitaram Yadav.

The Congress has not yet announced its candidate from this Ahir-dominated constituency but former minister Rao Narendra and former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Anita Yadav are among those who are vying for the Congress ticket from Ateli.

As far as the JJP candidate is concerned, Aayushi, an LLB and MBA by qualification, is the wife of Abhimanyu Rao, state vice-president of the JJP, and has served as a sarpanch of Saharanwas village in Rewari district from 2017 to 2022. Abhimanyu is the nephew of former minister and national president of OBC Department of the Congress Capt Ajay Singh Yadav.

“Aayushi (36) had got several development works done in Saharanwas village while serving as the sarpanch. She is continuously working in the social sector and politics is a platform to serve the people, hence she has jumped into the fray. Moreover, she belongs to a political family,” Abhimanyu told The Tribune.

He said Aayushi’s father Rao Kamalbir Singh was state president of the Janta Dal United (JDU) from 2012 to 2017. He had also unsuccessfully contested the Assembly poll from Badshahpur (Gurugram) on the Congress ticket in 2019. Former minister Rao Narbir is her uncle, he added.

Besides the BJP and the JJP, the BSP has already fielded Thakur Attar Lal from Ateli, who stood second in the 2019 poll, securing 37,387 votes.