BJP tries to strike caste balance in 2 poll panels
Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 10
The ruling BJP today tried to balance caste equations while naming two crucial poll committees — the State Election Committee and State Election Management Committee — for the poll-bound Haryana.
All 36 ‘biradaris’ represented
All 36 biradaris have been included in the election committees. The BJP is fully geared up for polls and to form the government for the third time in a row in Haryana. Mohan Lal Badoli, State BJP Chief
The party tried to accommodate all sections of society, including the OBCs, Jats, Brahmins, Aggarwals and the Scheduled Castes, a move that is seen as a bid to beat anti-incumbency in the October Assembly poll.
Besides BJP state chief Mohan Lal Badoli and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, the 20-member State Election Committee will have three Union Ministers from the state—Manohar Lal Khattar, Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar. The committee is mandated to recommend names of the party candidates for the Assembly poll to the Central Parliamentary Board. Prominent among members of the election committee are Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, Finance Minister JP Dalal, Dharambir Singh, MP, Ram Bilas Sharma and Capt Abhimanyu, both former ministers.
The party leaders, who are part of the 32-member State Election Management Committee included Badoli, Krishan Panwar, MP, GL Sharma, Vipul Goel, Sandeep Joshi, Varinder Garg, Madan Chauhan, Rajeev Jaitley, Aditya Chawla and Jawahar Yadav.
At least four leaders—OP Dhankar, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Sunita Duggal and Usha Priyadarshini— form part of both the committees underlying their importance in the forthcoming election.
Badoli said 36 “biradaris” had been included in the election committees. “The BJP is fully geared up for election and set to form government for the third time in a row in Haryana,” he asserted. However, certain senior leaders are conspicuous by their absence in both the committees. They included former minister Anil Vij, Kiran Chaudhry, Ashok Tanwar and MP Naveen Jindal. In fact, JP Dalal is the only minister, who has been included in one of the panels.
