Much against its claims that leaders who had joined it had done so unconditionally, the BJP has handed tickets to relatives of high-profile defectors from the Congress, including Union minister Rao Inderjit and veteran Birender Singh among other turncoats, for the Haryana Assembly elections.
The party released its first list of 43 candidates for the 90-member Assembly Tuesday after three-hour deliberation that was chaired by party president Amit Shah and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
The party has granted tickets to all its sitting MLAs barring Krishan Pal Gurjar, who is now part of the Union Cabinet after he won the Lok Sabha elections from Faridabad. The first list has seven women and 11 youth leaders.
Rao?s daughter, Aarti Rao, has been given the ticket from Rewari, where she will taken on six-time Congress MLA and Haryana Irrigation Minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav. The seat is an Ahir dominated one and both are from the community.
Birender Singh?s wife, Prem Lata, has been fielded at Uchana, where her strongest rival, as of now, is the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) president Om Prakash Chautala. Singh had lost to Chautala here in the last elections. With his wife?s elevation, all eyes will be on Singh?s role in the party for the Assembly elections.
The BJP has also been magnanimous to turncoats. Shamsher Kharkhara and Krishan Panwar, who quit the INLD to join the party, have been given tickets from Meham and Israna, respectively, while Sunita Setia and Chhatar Pal Singh, who had dumped the Congress, have been given tickets from Sirsa and Hansi, respectively.
Veteran party leaders have also been accommodated in the first list. Leader of the BJP Legislature Party Anil Vij has been given the ticket from Ambala Cantt while Kavita Jain has been fielded from Sonepat and Ghanshyam Saraf from Bhiwani.
State BJP chief Ram Bilash Sharma will contest from his native seat of Mahendergarh, where he has been losing to Rao Dan Singh of the Congress. Sharma has not won an election, Assembly or Lok Sabha, in two decades.
Om Prakash Dhankar, known for his proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been fielded from Badli despite strong resentment against his candidature. The constituency has been littered with posters against Dhankar. Manohar Lal Khattar, another leader known for his connections to the Prime Minister, has been handed the Karnal ticket, considered one of the party?s safest bets.
Former MP Sudha Yadav, the only face from Haryana in the Amit Shah team, has been fielded from Badshahpur while Captain Abhimanyu, another who has never won an election, has been given the ticket from Narnaund. The party had fielded Dharam Pal Hooda from Garhi Sampla Kiloi against Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
