After ruling out the possibility of any reconciliation with the India National Lok Dal (INLD), the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) on Friday released its first list of candidates for the Assembly elections in Haryana.
The JJP — the breakaway outfit of the INLD — had announced that it would contest all the 90 Assembly seats after its seat-sharing talks with the Bahujan Samaj Party failed last week.
The JJP and the BSP had entered into a poll alliance on August 11.
However, BSP supremo Mayawati on September 6 announced that her party had snapped ties with the JJP.
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Seven candidates
The JJP’s first list of candidates includes a former Minister and two ex-MLAs. The names of the seven candidates, which was released by party’s State president Nishan Singh, are: Devender Kadiyan from Panipat Rural, Anoop Dhanak from Uklana (SC), Ram Kumar Gautam from Narnaund, Rao Ramesh Palri from Mahendergarh, Kamlesh Saini from Narnaul, Shyam Sundar from Bawal (SC) and Harsh Kumar from the Hathin seat.
While Mr. Harsh Kumar has been a Minister, Mr. Ram Kumar Gautam and Anoop Dhanak are former MLAs.
Bitter feud
The INLD saw a split in 2018 after a bitter power struggle between the brothers — Ajay Chautala, who is serving a 10-year jail sentence in a teacher recruitment scam and Abhay Chautala, who was Leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Assembly and had been running the party since 2013.
Amid the ongoing family feud, Ajay and his son Dushyant Chautala floated a new political outfit – the JJP. Haryana is due to go to the polls in October this year.
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