Dhankar, CM to pick Baroda candidate

Tribune News Service
Sonepat, October 10

The BJP’s state election committee (SEC) has authorised Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and state chief Om Prakash Dhankar to finalise the name of the candidate for the Baroda Assembly bypoll. The CM and the state president will shortlist the aspirants’ names and send it to the central election committee (CEC) for the final decision.

As many as 19 members of the SEC, out of 21 members attended the meeting, discussed the overall strategy and probable candidates, and authorised the Chief Minister and the state president to finalise the name of the candidate.

Dhankar, Khattar, Union Minister Rattan Lal Kataria, Home Minister Anil Vij, Education Minister Kanwar Pal Gurjar, MPs Sanjay Bhatia and Ramesh Kaushik, Agriculture Minister JP Dalal, former minister Ram Bilas Sharma, former state president Subhash Barala, former Rajya Sabha member Birender Singh and district president Mohan Lal Kaushik, among others, were present during the meeting.

After one-and-a-half-hour-long meeting, Dhankar said all members had discussed the overall scenario of the bypoll. As many as 25 aspirants had submitted their biodata to the committee to contest the byelection, he said.

He, along with the Chief Minister, would hold discussions about the candidates and present the points before the CEC to take the final decision, Dhankar said.

So far, all aspirants were of the BJP, the state chief said.

Dhankar said the biodata of Babita Phogat, who had resigned from the government job, had not been received.