Haryana: Rao Inderjit, Manohar Lal Khattar loyalists on BJP’s second list, 3 seats on hold

The ruling BJP today announced its second list of candidates and dropped seven sitting MLAs, including two ministers, in a clear bid to buck anti-incumbency in the October 5 Assembly polls.

Two muslims also fielded

• Several loyalists of Rao Inderjit Singh, including Om Prakash Yadav, Krishna Kumar and Bimla Chaudhry, are on the list
• Former CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s aides Manish Grover, Krishan Bedi and Pawan Saini are also on the list
• Two Muslims — Naseem Ahmed (Nuh) and Aizaz Ahmed (Punhana) have also been fielded by the BJP
• Party’s Pehowa candidate withdraws, ‘rebel’ Jai Bhagwan Sharma named new candidate

Bone of contention

Mahendragarh: The BJP is likely to deny the ticket to senior leader Ram Bilas Sharma, who has asked his supporters to assemble for filing his ‘nomination’ on September 11

Faridabad (NIT): Tussle between Union Minister KP Gurjar and ex-MLA Nagendra Bhadana over the ticket. Gurjar pitching for his son

Sirsa: This seat has been left for the NDA partner, HLP, led by sitting Sirsa MLA Gopal Kanda

The saffron party has pitted Capt Yogesh Bairagi against Olympian Vinesh Phogat from Julana Assembly segment.

In fact, the party has replaced two-time MLAs and two ministers in the Nayab Singh Saini government — Banwari Lal (Bawal) and Seema Trikha (Badkhal) —with the newcomers Krishna Kumar (Bawal) and Dhanesh Adlakha (Badkhal).

The five MLAs, who have been dropped included BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli (Rai), Nirmal Rani (Ganaur), Praveen Dagar (Hathin), Jagdish Nayar (Hodal) and Satya Prakash Jrawta (Pataudi). While senior BJP leader Krishna Gahlawat will replace Badoli, who had already expressed his desire to opt out of the contest to focus on poll campaign, Devender Kaushik will be party candidate from Ganaur, Bimla Chaudhary from Pataudli, Manoj Rawat from Hathin and Harinder Singh Ramrattan from Hodal.

Meanwhile, due to lack of consensus, the party has put allocation of tickets from three seats — Mahendragarh, Sirsa and Faridabad (NIT) — on hold.

Former minister and former party chief Ram Bilas Sharma, who is a frontrunner for ticket from Mahendragarh, is likely to enter the electoral fray as an Independent candidate if denied ticket by the party. One of the senior most party leaders in Haryana, Sharma led the party to it’s first-ever victory in the state as the party president in 2014. In a social media message, his son Gautam has asked his supporters to assemble for filing ‘nomination’ by Sharma tomorrow. In Faridabad, the ticket has been ‘put on hold’ as Union minister Krishan Pal Gurjar is reportedly pitching for his son Devinder Chaudhary, a claim which is being contested by former MLA and ticket aspirant Nagendra Bhadana.

Meanwhile, there is an understanding of leaving the Sirsa seat for the NDA alliance partner Haryana Lokhit Party led by Gopal Kanda. Kanda is the sitting MLA from Sirsa.

The party has also fielded two Muslims —Naseem Ahmed (Nuh) and Aizaz Ahmed (Punhana). Haryana minister Sanjay Singh, who was earlier dropped from his Assembly segment of Sohna, has been adjusted in Muslim-dominated Nuh.

BJP rebel Jai Bhagwan Sharma, who is a ticket aspirant from Thanesar, will be the new candidate from Pehowa after party’s official candidate — Kawaljeet Singh Ajrana — opted out of the race due to protest against his candidature.

A close look at the list showed that the stamp of Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh and Manohar Lal Khattar was clearly visible in the list. While Rao Inderjit Singh had already bagged at least six seats in the first list, in today’s list at least three candidates — Om Prakash Yadav, Krishna Kumar and Bimla Chaudhary — belonged to his camp.

Khattar, on the hand, has managed to get tickets for several of his loyalists, including Krishan Bedi (Narwana), Manish Grover (Rohtak) and Yogendra Rana (Assandh) and Pawan Saini (Naraingarh). Saini is also close to CM Nayab Singh Saini.

Meanwhile, the other candidates declared today included Satpal Jamba (Pundri), Pradep Sangwan (Baroda), Baldev Singh Mangiana (Dabwali), and Amir Chand Mehta (Ellenabad).