The Congress on Thursday night released its list of candidates for eight of the nine Lok Sabha seats it is contesting in Haryana. The party is yet to decide on its candidate for the Gurgaon seat. Sushil Gupta, the State president of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the INDIA bloc ally of the Congress, is contesting from the Kurukshetra seat.
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The list, apparently delayed due to alleged infighting within the party’s State unit, seems to bear the stamp of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda camp.
Surprise omissions
It had two surprise omissions, with former Hisar MP Brijendra Singh, who had quit the BJP to join Congress a month ago, and two-time former Minister Kiran Choudhry’s daughter Shruti Choudhry failing to make the cut. Instead, the party has fielded from the seat three-time former Hisar MP Jai Prakash, better known as ‘JP’ and considered to be a confidant of Mr. Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Another Hooda loyalist and Mahendragarh MLA, Rao Dan Singh, is the candidate for the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat.
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Congress general secretary and former Union Minister Kumari Selja and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda have been fielded from Sirsa, a Scheduled Caste-reserved seat, and Rohtak constituencies, respectively. Mr. Deepender Hooda has won the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat thrice in the past.
Varun Choudhary, former State Congress president Phool Chand Mullana’s son and Mulana MLA, has been named the candidate for the Ambala seat, which is also reserved for the Scheduled Castes.
State Youth Congress president Divyanshu Budhiraja has been pitted against former CM Manohar Lal in Karnal. Satpal Brahamachari, the party’s Haridwar Assembly constituency candidate in 2022, has been named its candidate for the Sonipat seat.
Two-time Minister and five-time MLA Mahendra Pratap is the candidate for the Faridabad seat.