Chandigarh: The Rohtak seat is expected to be a tricky one for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana, and the party is set to choose between two state cabinet ministers to give its fortunes a fillip.
The two men being considered for the BJP ticket from Rohtak are Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu and Agriculture Minister O.P. Dhankar. Both are said to have given their consent, but a final decision is yet to be taken by the party high command.
Haryana’s 10 seats go to the polls in the sixth phase on 12 May.
Hooda’s fortress
Rohtak is the bastion of former Congress CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda. His following in this constituency is so strong that even while his party was being swept away in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, his son Deepender managed to win the seat. The BJP won seven seats in that election, while the Indian National Lok Dal won the other two.
Hooda is one of the most popular Jat leaders in Haryana, and Rohtak, dominated by Jats, has been the family’s stronghold since the 1950s, when his father Ranbir Singh Hooda won the seat twice in a row. Hooda himself has represented Rohtak in Parliament on four occasions — 1991, 1996, 1998 and 2004.
Deepender was introduced in a by-election in 2005 after his father resigned to become CM of Haryana, and has held the seat ever since.
For the BJP, it is essential to counter Hooda & son with a Jat candidate. It seemed to be considering Paralympic medallist athlete Deepa Malik, who recently joined the party, since she is a Punjabi married to a Jat. However, the party’s internal discussions showed that the Punjabi community was at loggerheads with the Jats, and this might go against Malik.
Although her name hasn’t really been dropped entirely from the discussion, sources in the BJP say the focus has clearly shifted to Abhimanyu and Dhankar.
Also read: Congress has a test for warring Haryana leaders eyeing CM chair — ace Lok Sabha polls first
Still no name for Hisar either
The BJP has not announced candidate for the Hisar seat either.
This seat was won by Dushyant Chautala of the INLD in 2014. However, a schism in the Chautala family has led to the formation of a new party, Jannayak Janta Party, which Dushyant will represent this time.
In 2009, former chief minister Bhajan Lal had won the seat for his Haryana Janhit Congress party, a breakaway from the Congress. His death in June 2011 necessitated a by-election, which was won by his son Kuldeep Bishnoi. Bishnoi tied up with the BJP for the Lok Sabha polls, before merging the party into the Congress in 2016.
Bhajan Lal’s family has held Hisar’s Adampur assembly segment since 1968, with Kuldeep Bishnoi the current MLA. He is planning to field his son Bhavya Bishnoi from the Hisar Lok Sabha seat.
The BJP has does not have many options available for this seat. It is considering fielding IAS officer Brijendra Singh, son of union steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh.
Birender Singh was a Congress stalwart for decades before turning to the BJP just before the 2014 polls. He is the maternal grandson of one of Haryana’s greatest Jat icons, the farmer leader Sir Chhotu Ram.
Brijendra Singh is a 1998-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, and is currently posted as joint secretary in the Haryana State Cooperative Supply & Marketing Federation Limited.
Sources say though Birender Singh is eager to push the son into politics, Brijendra is not so keen.
Another name doing the rounds as the possible BJP candidate is that of Ranbir Singh Gangwa Prajapati, a former INLD Rajya Sabha MP and MLA, who recently switched sides.
Five MPs retained
On the other seats, the Haryana BJP has not experimented much in its choice of candidates. Five of its seven sitting MPs have been retained on their seats, while the other two have been expectedly given the boot.
Kurukshetra MP Raj Kumar Saini had turned rebel and floated his own party, so the BJP has fielded cabinet minister Nayab Singh Saini.
Meanwhile, Karnal MP Ashwini Chopra, a journalist and media baron who had turned critical of the Manohar Lal Khattar administration, has been dropped in favour of Sanjay Bhatia, a close aide of the CM. Khattar is the MLA from Karnal, and his choice of Bhatia is designed to let him keep a strong grip on the region, with assembly elections slated later this year.
Also read: Congress willing to ally in Delhi, but AAP wants Punjab, Haryana & Goa too