Protests in BJP over tickets to new recruits, ‘old losers’

There have been protests in Mahendergarh, Rohtak, Kurukshetra, Narnaund, Hisar, Kaithal, Karnal, Gurgaon, Kalayat, Tosham, Ellenabad, Mullana and Faridabad. In Mahendergarh, where the party has fielded its state unit chief Ram Bilas Sharma, workers protested outside his house and burnt his effigy; police had to intervene.

Sharma has not won an election since 1996, that victory coming during a tie-up with the Haryana Vikas Party led by Bansi Lal. Sharma was considered the architect of the BJP’s subsequent alliance with the INLD of Om Prakash Chautala, which eventually toppled the Bansi Lal government in 1999.

Party veteran Om Prakash Dhankar, known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, faced protests from workers in Badli, from where he has been fielded. Senior leader Captain Abhimanyu, who has been the national spokesman of the BJP, faced demonstrations in his constituency of Narnaund.

Neither Dhankar nor Abhimanyu has ever won an election in the state. Senior party leader Manohar Lal Khattar has been given a ticket from Karnal, leading to protests from Karnal MP Ashwani Chopra himself; he said he had not been consulted.

The BJP has also given tickets to a number of leaders who have joined the party recently. These include Prem Lata, wife of former Congress leader Birender Singh, from Uchana Kalan. Significantly, Birender himself has not been nominated. When he was taken into the BJP recently, there was talk about his being considered as the party’s chief ministerial candidate.

Other new inductions fielded include Shamsher Kharkhara from Meham, Krishan Lal Panwar from Israna, Jagdish Nehra from Rania, Krishna Gehlot from Rai, Chhatar Pal Singh from Hansi, Harsh Kumar from Hathin, Balwant Singh from Sadhaura and Sunita Setia from Sirsa.

Sushma’s emergence on the Haryana poll scene was sudden. Apart from Vandana Sharma, the party has also fielded Latika Sharma, a close aide of the union minister, from Kalka. Latika Sharma has never been involved in Haryana politics either.

Former Sonepat Congress MP Jitender Malik, who was known for his closeness to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has been fielded from Gannaur while J P Dalal, close to Excise and Taxation Minister Kiran Choudhary, has been fielded from Loharu. Former INLD MP Surender Barwala, who recently joined the party, has been given the ticket to Jind, a Jat stronghold, while another former Congressman, Darao Singh Rajaura, has been nominated for Jhajjar. Jai Singh Thekedar, who contested the Lok Sabha polls on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket from Sonepat, has been given the Sonepat assembly ticket.

The grumbling has made the BJP the target of other parties’ mockery. “They don’t have leaders of their own to field as candidates. The same thing happened in the Lok Sabha polls when they borrowed candidates from other parties,” said state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar.

INLD leader Abhay Chautala said, “The BJP has sold tickets. What else can be expected of a party that has not even 90 leaders to be fielded as candidates? The electorate know what is happening. If they think they can run the state with borrowed leaders, they are mistaken.”