The Bharatiya Janta Party on Sunday announced the names of its remaining two candidates for the Lok Sabha election from Haryana, which is scheduled to go to the polls on May 12.
The party has decided to field Brijendera Singh from the Hisar parliamentary constituency while Arvind Sharma – an ex-Congress MP, who recently joined the BJP - will contest from the Rohtak seat.
Pitted against Hooda
Mr. Sharma is pitted against sitting Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda, son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda.
Brijendera Singh is the son of Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh, who after the announcement of his son’s candidature offered to resign from the Cabinet and the Rajya Sabha.
Mr. Birender Singh told reporters in New Delhi that he has intimated party president Amit Shah regarding his resignation offer. He said that the BJP is against “dynastic politics” and he wants to clearly send this message to the people.
Brijendra Singh said he supports and respects his father’s decision but at the same time, “it puts more responsibility on my shoulders”. The bureaucrat-turned-politician sees similarities between his previous job and his future assignment, saying the purpose of both is to serve people, the State and the country.
He felt that in politics there was a more direct connect with the people and said that an MP’s vision should not be limited to his constituency, but should extend to the whole country.
On the legacy of his great grandfather, Sir Chottu Ram, he said it was not just limited to Haryana. “Since childhood, I was impacted by his ideology,” he said.
Birender Singh had a 47-year-long political career, of which he spent 42 years serving the Congress. He said he would work to strengthen the BJP further.
He will be campaigning for Brijendra and other BJP candidates in Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh.
‘Voluntary retirement’
Asked if his son had taken voluntary retirement, Birender Singh said: “He has applied for it.” The BJP had last week announced the names of eight candidates for Haryana, which has a total of 10 Lok Sabha constituencies. The BJP currently has seven MPs from Haryana.
(With PTI inputs)
