Denied tickets to the forthcoming Assembly election in Haryana, several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Jails Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala, have announced their decision to quit and contest against the party’s official candidates less than 24 hours after the saffron party came out with its first list of 67 candidates on Wednesday.
Releasing the list for the agrarian State scheduled to vote on October 5, the BJP dropped eight sitting MLAs, including two Ministers. Besides former Sports Minister and Pehowa MLA Sandeep Singh, who has been facing sexual harassment charges, the party also dropped its MLAs in Gurgaon, Sohna, Bawani Khera, Ratia, Ateli, Faridabad, and Palwal.
However, many turncoats, including three Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLAs (Devender Singh Babli, Ram Kumar Gautam and Anoop Dhanak), apart from Shakti Rani Sharma, mother of Rajya Sabha member Kartikeya Sharma, made it to the party’s list of candidates. JJP leader Sanjay Kablana, and former Jail Superintendent Sunil Sangwan, both of whom had joined the BJP a few days before the announcement of the list, have also been fielded, causing resentment among BJP leaders who said dedicated party workers had been overlooked.
Besides Mr. Chautala, who was seeking a ticket from Rania, the party’s Ratia MLA Lakshman Napa, vice-president and Faridabad in-charge G.L. Sharma, and former Badhra MLA and Charkhi Dadri president Sukhvinder Sheoran, were among a few prominent leaders to resign from the party on Thursday.
Aiming to strike balance between various castes, the BJP has fielded 14 OBC (Other Backward Classes) candidates, 13 Jats, nine Brahmins, and seven Punjabis, with representation to Scheduled Castes as well. The party has also fielded 27 new faces, and eight women. Sons and daughters of at least five BJP leaders — Shruti Choudhry, Bhavya Bishnoi, Arti Rao, Sunil Sangwan, and Manmohan Bhadana — have also been fielded from different seats across the State.
Announcing his resignation from the party and as Cabinet Minister before his supporters, Mr. Chautala, who had joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha election, said he would not “beg” for the party ticket and would most probably contest as an Independent from the Rania Assembly constituency. Mr. Chautala had won Rania as an Independent MLA in 2019, and later supported the BJP government. “Just five minutes ago, I got a call from Delhi, with party leaders offering me the Dabwali Assembly seat. But I made it clear that I would contest only from Rania,” Mr. Chautala said, amid loud cheers from his supporters.
Irked over the denial of a ticket, Mr. Napa, in a two-line resignation letter, announced he would quit the primary membership of the party with immediate effect. Mr. Napa told The Hindu over phone that he was set to join the Congress later in the day.
Mr. Sharma, who was seeking a ticket from the Gurgaon Assembly constituency, too resigned to join the Congress along with hundreds of supporters and party office-bearers. “The BJP talks about giving jobs on merit, but the tickets are distributed under pressure from senior leaders. The party should have considered merit in ticket distribution as well. The leaders at whose behest the tickets have been distributed must now ensure the party’s victory,” Mr. Sharma said.
Mr. Sheoran, a third generation politician whose association with the BJP is over two decades old, said that it was a painful decision, but dedicated workers had been overlooked to field parachuted candidates borrowed from other parties. Former Minister and the party’s State OBC Morcha president Karan Dev Kamboj said he and his family had served the party for years, but the BJP, which was said to be a disciplined party, was probably not in need of loyalists any more.
BJP leader Aditya Devi Lal, who had contested on the party’s ticket from Dabwali in 2019, also resigned as Chairperson of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board. He told The Hindu over phone that he would soon resign from the party as well for being ignored in the tickets’ list. “The party probably does not need honest and dedicated workers,” Mr. Lal said.
Former Urban Local Bodies Minister, Kavita Jain, who was seeking a ticket from Sonipat, became emotional upon denial of a ticket and said that she would wait for two days for the party to change its decision before deciding on a future course of action. BJP Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal’s mother Savitri Jindal too said she would contest from Hisar against the party’s official candidate and Health Minister Kamal Gupta, who is said to be backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). However, she is not a member of the BJP.
Praveen Attrey, media secretary to Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, sought to downplay the flurry of resignations. He said “they are our own people” and the party leadership would be conciliatory with them. On the question of tickets being given to “outsiders”, Mr. Attrey said winnability was the sole criterion for ticket distribution, and there was bound to be some heartburn when the number of ticket-seekers was so large.
Published - September 05, 2024 09:06 pm IST
