JJP picks 5 more, fields Devender Kadian from Karnal

Pradeep Sharma

Chandigarh, April 29

Devender Kadian, a close relative of former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chatuala, will take on former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in the Karnal Lok Sabha seat in the parliamentary elections.

The name of Kadian, brother-in-law of Chautala, figured in the list of the five candidates announced by the party today. Devender is the son of late Satbir Singh Kadian, who was the Speaker of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha during the tenure chief ministership of Om Prakash Chautala.

In the Karnal parliamentary seat, Khattar is pitted against Congress’ Divyanshu Budhiraja and Virender Maratha of the NCP (Sharad Pawar), who is supported by the INLD.

Meanwhile, the party has played the OBC card in Kurukshetra by fielding Pala Ram Saini against two Aggarwal community candidates—Sushil Gupta (INDI Alliance) and Naveen Jindal (BJP) — and Abhay Chautala (Jat) from the INLD.

On the Ambala reserved seat, the party has reposed faith in a woman candidate, Kiran Poonia, the second woman candidate fielded by the JJP after Naina Chautala from Hisar.

While JJP’s state youth president Ravinder Sangwan will be candidate from Rohtak, Bhupinder Malik will fight it out in Sonepat.

Know the JJP candidates

Kiran Poonia (Ambala): Secretary of the JJP, Poonia is a Hindi professor in a private college in Ambala. She is the daughter-in-law of former minister Kirpa Ram Poonia.

Pala Ram Saini (K’shetra): Vice-president of the JJP, Saini is a prominent social worker and runs a school in Kurukshetra.

Devender Kadian (Karnal): Son of former Speaker Satbir Kadian. Devender is also brother-in-law of former Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala.

Bhupinder Malik (Sonepat): National secretary of the JJP, Malik is the former president of the market committee, Gohana (Sonepat).

Ravinder Sangwan (Rohtak): President of the youth wing of the party, Sangwan has been at the forefront of raising issues related to the youth.