Chandigarh, Sep 5 (PTI) A day after the ruling BJP announced its first list of 67 candidates for the October 5 Haryana assembly polls, the party faced rebellion with minister Ranjit Singh Chautala and MLA Lakshman Dass Napa who were denied ticket quitting the party.
Energy and Jails Minister Ranjit Chautala (79), son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, said he took a decision after a meeting with his supporters and will now enter the fray as an Independent.
Napa quit the party after being denied ticket while former minister Karan Dev Kamboj also stepped down as state BJP’s OBC Morcha chief after party ignored his candidature.
The rebel trouble for BJP started shortly after it came out with the first list of candidates as it left many sulking.
While Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini sought to downplay the events, former minister Savitri Jindal, who had quit the Congress and joined the BJP in March, days after her son and industrialist Naveen Jindal had also joined the saffron party, said she will fight from Hisar, even as an Independent.
After quitting the party, Napa met former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his residence in the national capital in the morning and later joined the the Congress in the evening along with his supporters in the national capital in the presence of the former chief minister.
Hooda, while welcoming him and his supporters into the party fold, said, “Napa and those who joined our party with him have taken the right decision at the right time.” “This decision will prove to be helpful in ousting BJP from power and paving way for formation of a Congress government with a big majority,” he added.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Kurukshetra in the afternoon before Napa joined the Congress, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini sought to downplay the events, saying, “No one has left the party… Karan Dev Kamboj and Lakshman Napa are our senior leaders… we will make them understand.” Ranjit Chautala called a meeting of his supporters after the party ignored his candidature from Rania segment in Sirsa district.
“I took the decision after consulting my supporters,” he said when asked about his move.
“I had good relations with them (BJP). They gave me Lok Sabha ticket (from Hisar, which he fought unsuccessfully). But don’t know on whose advice they have acted. I will say anyone who has given them this advice has caused damage to the party,” Chautala said.
“I am Chaudhary Devi Lal’s son. I have some stature… I have decided to contest as an Independent,” he said, while adding he has resigned as minister and quit the BJP.
Chautala was hoping to contest from Rania seat but the BJP fielded Shishpal Kamboj instead.
Ranjit had resigned as Independent MLA from Rania ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to join the BJP and fought the Hisar parliamentary seat unsuccessfully.
Napa, sitting MLA from Ratia reserve constituency in Fatehabad district, said he served his constituency with full dedication and undertook development works. He said he does not know why the party denied him re-nomination from the assembly segment.
In another jolt to the BJP after it put out the first list of candidates, former minister Karan Dev Kamboj, who was also a ticket hopeful but did not get one, said he has resigned as state president of Haryana BJP’s OBC Morcha and from all party posts he held.
Commenting on the developments in the BJP camp, senior Congress leader and Sirsa MP Kumari Selja said, “After 10 years of being in power, such is the situation of BJP…their leaders are leaving them. BJP has accepted defeat.” JJP leader Dushyant Chautala said BJP’s “bubble has burst” and their defeat is certain.
A few sitting BJP legislators, including minister Sanjay Singh and former minister Sandeep Singh, did not figure in the first list of BJP candidates.
Sanjay Singh, legislator from Sohna, said party has done “injustice” with him.
Former Haryana minister Savitri Jindal, who had quit the Congress and joined the BJP in March, days after her son and industrialist Naveen Jindal had also left the party to join the saffron outfit, said she will fight from Hisar, even as an Independent.
Savitri Jindal told reporters there that “I will abide by what people of Hisar will tell me.” When asked that people want her to contest from Hisar as the party has re-nominated its sitting MLA from the seat ignoring her, she replied, “I have decided to contest. I want to serve my people as this is my last election.” Asked if she will contest even as an Independent, she said, whatever is possible.
Further asked will her entering fray against BJP candidate from Hisar not amount to rebellion, she quipped, “it wont be considered so. I had only campaigned for my son (Naveen Jindal in LS polls). I have not taken any membership (of BJP).” Naveen Jindal is BJP MP from Kurukshetra.
From Ratia, the party has fielded former Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Duggal was denied re-nomination from the Sirsa parliamentary constituency after former Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, who had joined BJP ahead of the LS polls, was given the ticket.
Tanwar, however, lost to Congress veteran Kumari Selja.
Former Haryana minister and senior BJP leader Kavita Jain, a ticket hopeful from Sonipat, was also sulking after party fielded Nikhil Madan from the constituency.
Addressing her supporters in Sonipat, she turned emotional and broke into tears, and said she had always worked as a dedicated soldier for her party and her candidature should have been considered.
In its first list released on Wednesday, the BJP fielded Chief Minister Saini, who is the sitting MLA from Karnal, from the Ladwa seat, and rewarded several recent entrants to the party with poll tickets.
The BJP is aiming for a hat-trick in Haryana but faces tough challenge from a resurgent Congress which is looking to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor.
Saini is the BJP’s chief ministerial face for the assembly polls. The counting of votes for the elections to the 90-member assembly will take place on October 8. In Gurugram, after Mukesh Sharma was announced as BJP candidate, party leader and aspirant Naveen Goyal revolted and resigned.
Goyal, state convener of the BJP’s business cell and head of its environment protection department, has now decided to contest as an independent. Along with him, more than a hundred party officials and workers also announced that they are leaving the party. PTI SUN ZMN
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