Top BJP leaders, including Haryana CM Nayab Saini and former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, have reached out to party rebels in Haryana, with limited success as they are adamant on contesting the assembly polls.
Already faced with the uphill task of retaining power in Haryana, the BJP’s first list of 67 candidates added to its woes as more than a dozen leaders turned rebels while former minister Ranjit Singh Chautala and Ratia MLA Lakshman Das Napa resigned from the party.
BJP’s farmer wing chief Sukhwinder Sheoran and its OBC chief Karan Dev Kamboj also quit the party as they were denied tickets. Kamboj was eyeing a ticket from Indri.After his resignation, Saini reached out to him but Kamboj made his anger visible to Saini by not even shaking hands with him. On Sunday, Khattar met several disgruntled party leaders in Haryana. The BJP state leaders’ attempts to reach out to these rebels are not yielding much result as Kamboj has met Congress leader Bhupender Singh Hooda in Delhi.Similarly, sports minister and MLA from Sohna, Sanjay Singh, also indicated that he would contest elections as BJP. denied him a ticket. Famed singer Kanhaiya Mittal has also distanced himself from BJP as the party didn’t consider his request for a ticket. He is now eyeing to join the Congress. Saini and several top leaders of the BJP are reaching out to disgruntled leaders to calm them and keep them in the party fold.
To balance the caste equation with more emphasis on OBCs, the BJP on Wednesday had announced 67 candidates. The list incudes 16 OBCs, 13 Jats, 13 SCs, 9 Brahmins, 8 Punjabis, 5 Baniyas, two Rajputs and a Sikh. Besides trying to balance the caste equations, the party has also made space for turncoats, which has not gone well with the party workers. The party has also tried to keep some of the prominent faces, who have switched to the BJP in the last decade or so like Rao Inderjit Singh and Kuldeep Bishnoi in good humor by taking them in the loop while deciding the tickets in their areas of influence. .
Haryana power minister Ranjit Chautala convened a meeting of his supporters at Rania before announcing his decision. He had contested from Hisar Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket but lost. He was replaced with Shishpal Kamboj. BJP leader Shamsher Singh Kharkhara, contested from Meham in 2019, but lost and quit the party after he was denied the ticket. The BJP has fielded former Indian kabaddi team captain Deepak Hooda from Meham. Former MLA Bachan Singh Arya has also resigned from the BJP after JJP rebel Ram Kumar Gautam fielded from Safidon in Jind. Gautam was sitting MLA from Narnaund.
Former Haryana minister Kavita Jain burst into tears after the party replaced her with Nikhil Madan from Sonepat. Madan recently switched to the BJP.
Similarly, supporters of former minister Savitri Jindal, mother of Kurukshetra BJP MP Naveen Jindal, urged her to contest as an Independent from Hisar. The BJP has fielded its sitting MLA Kamal Gupta from here.