Haryana: BJP releases final list, dumps ex-minister Ram Bilas Sharma
The BJP on Wednesday denied ticket to its senior leader and former education minister Ram Bilas Sharma and fielded Kanwar Singh Yadav as its nominee from the Mahendergarh assembly seat.
The BJP on Wednesday denied ticket to its senior leader and former education minister Ram Bilas Sharma and fielded Kanwar Singh Yadav as its nominee from the Mahendergarh assembly seat.
The development comes hours after Ram Bilas filed his papers from Mahendergarh as a BJP candidate. With this, the former minister’s nomination as a BJP candidate is set to be rejected, people familiar with the development said.
The ruling BJP late on Wednesday evening released its third and final list. Besides Yadav, the party has named Rohtash Jangra from Sirsa and Satish Fagna from the Faridabad NIT seat. With this, the BJP has named candidates for all the 90 assembly seats.
Sensing that the party may not give him the ticket from Mahendergarh, five-time MLA Ram Bilas filed his nomination papers from the constituency earlier in the day.
Earlier in the day, Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh and Bhiwani-Mahendergarh MP Dharambir Singh visited the residence of Ram Bilas and lambasted the party leadership.
Addressing the BJP workers in Mahendergarh, Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh said that Ram Bilas was the man who made the BJP visible on the ground in Haryana.
“Either party gives a ticket or not, they have no right to humiliate senior leaders like Ram Bilas Sharma. When I was in Congress, the BJP in Haryana was known because of Ram Bilas. He became MLA from Mahendergarh five times, and this is not an easy task. How many people in Haryana BJP become MLA five times. A campaign has been launched to tarnish his image. I hope the party will give him a ticket by this evening,” he added.
He said that the BJP’s decision will hamper party’s performance not only in Mahendergarh district, but across the state.
According to people aware of the development in the BJP, chief minister Nayab Singh Saini and his predecessor Manohar Lal Khattar have differences with Ram Bilas Sharma, who recently termed Rao Inderjit as the capable chief minister contender.
Former Hisar mayor to file nomination
Former Hisar mayor Gautam Sardana, a noire critic of health minister Kamal Gupta, has turned rebel and he will file his nomination papers as an independent from Hisar on Thursday. He claimed that Gupta did not work for the city in the last 10 years and people of Hisar are disgruntled, adding the BJP made a “mistake” by giving ticket to Gupta.
Former Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra and former minister Savitri Jindal also slammed Gupta for remaining “incommunicado with people in the last 10 years and failing to carry out developmental works”.