Gurugram: When Haryana BJP’s newly appointed state president Dr Archana Gupta rolled out her list of office-bearers this week, one pattern stood out—several party leaders who had been denied poll tickets or had openly expressed their ire against the senior leadership found themselves accommodated.
The list, cleared with the concurrence of BJP’s national president Nitin Nabin, names eight state vice-presidents, three general secretaries, nine state secretaries, four office-bearers handling treasury and administration, four in charge of media and IT, six morcha presidents and two cell in-charges.
The most striking name on the list is of Bhavya Bishnoi, son of former MP Kuldeep Bishnoi and grandson of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, who has been made a state vice president.
The Bishnois were at the centre of a public row just months earlier. In April, Rajya Sabha MP Rekha Sharma, addressing a meeting ahead of the Panchkula mayoral election, alleged that BJP candidate Sham Lal Bansal had lost the same seat years ago because of “badmaashi” by then CM Bhajan Lal and his men. Kuldeep and Bhavya reacted sharply and Sharma later apologised.
Since then, Kuldeep Bishnoi’s proximity to Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini has been visible, though he skipped Saini’s event at Guru Jambheshwar University in Hisar last month.
Earlier, in 2024, Kuldeep Bishnoi and his supporters had targeted former CM Manohar Lal Khattar in Hisar during the Lok Sabha campaign, after Khattar seemed to accuse Bhajan Lal, without naming him, of promoting corruption. Kuldeep was also passed over by the party for a poll ticket.
Bhavya Bishnoi’s own political run has had its share of setbacks.
Kuldeep fielded his son instead of contesting himself in the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Hisar, where he finished third. In 2022, when Kuldeep quit the Congress for the BJP, he fielded Bhavya for the bypoll in Adampur—a seat he himself had vacated and which Bhavya won comfortably.
In 2024, the father-son duo was denied the Hisar Lok Sabha ticket, which went instead to Khattar’s preferred candidate Ranjit Singh—who went on to lose the seat and later quit the BJP.
Another name on the list, Sunita Duggal, has had a similarly turbulent run with ticket allocations.
A former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, Duggal resigned from government service ahead of the 2014 elections after being assured a Lok Sabha ticket from the Sirsa (SC) seat. The BJP instead gave the seat to Kuldeep Bishnoi’s Haryana Janhit Congress.
Duggal was then made to work the Pataudi assembly constituency for months, only for the ticket to go to Bimla Chaudhary. She was finally fielded from Ratia at the last minute and lost narrowly to the Indian National Lok Dal’s Ravinder Baliala.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Duggal won the Sirsa seat by a margin of over three lakh votes, defeating Congress’s Ashok Tanwar.
But in 2024, the BJP dropped her again—this time in favour of Tanwar himself, who had joined the BJP after stints with the Congress, Trinamool Congress and AAP. Tanwar lost to Congress’s Kumari Selja.
Duggal, fielded once more from Ratia, lost to Congress’s Jarnail Singh.
Now, one of the men who defeated Duggal now figure alongside her on Gupta’s list. Ravinder Baliala, who beat her in 2014, joined the BJP in 2019 and has been named a state vice president.
Also on the list is Deepak Mangla, who won the Palwal assembly seat in 2019 after losing it to Congress’s Karan Singh Dalal in 2014, but was denied a ticket in 2024 when the party fielded Gaurav Gautam instead. Mangla has now been named a state vice president.
Latika Sharma, who won the Kalka assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2014 before losing it to Congress’s Pardeep Chaudhary in 2019, had a public argument with the party in 2024 when it denied her a ticket in favour of Shakti Rani Sharma, wife of former minister Venod Sharma. Latika Sharma had broken down in front of party workers at the time, alleging injustice. She, too, has now been made a state vice president.
The remaining vice presidents are sitting MLA Laxman Yadav, and longtime party workers Jawahar Saini of Jind and Ashok Gujjar of Kaithal.
Also Read: No LS ticket, not in star campaigners’ list — Kuldeep Bishnoi on political margins after joining BJP
Other office-bearers
The other office-bearers on Gupta’s list are general secretaries Gopal Sharma (Faridabad), Satyaprakash Jarawta (Gurugram) and Ved Phulla (Fatehabad).
The nine state secretaries are Madan Chauhan (Yamunanagar), Harvinder Kohli (Gurugram), Amarpal Rana (Jind), Pratibha Suman (Rohtak), Meena Chauhan (Karnal), Nagendra Sharma (Rohtak), Vikas Dahiya (Sonipat), Ravi Batan (Kurukshetra) and Gurpreet Kaur (Ambala).
Ajay Bansal (Rohtak) is state treasurer, Narendra Gupta (Faridabad) co-treasurer, Hariprakash Yadav (Jhajjar) office secretary and Rameshwar Chauhan (Yamunanagar) co-office secretary.
Further, Dr Sanjay Sharma (Ambala) is chief spokesperson, Bhupeshwar Dayal (Sonipat) is media coordinator, Aditya Chawla (Yamunanagar) is IT coordinator and Sombir Kataria (Jhajjar) is social media coordinator.
Morcha presidents are Akshit Dahiya (Sonipat)—Yuva Morcha, Richa Pahwa (Yamunanagar)—Mahila Morcha, Mahesh Chauhan (Gurugram)—Kisan Morcha, Sunil Sain (Dadri)—OBC Morcha, Ajay Khundia (Rohtak)—SC Morcha and Dr Avnit Vadaich (Kurukshetra)—Minority Morcha.
The cell in-charges are Mukesh Gaur (Bhiwani) and Manish Yadav (Gurugram).
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Who is Dr Archana Gupta, second woman to lead Haryana BJP in 43 years