Union education minister and BJP’s state election in-charge Dharemendra Pradhan on Sunday took a dig at the internal feud in the opposition Congress, meanwhile, praising the unity of his party, saying that the Haryana BJP members are camping behind their “captain”--chief minister Nayab Singh Saini.
Pradhan was at Kurukshetra’s Thanesar grain market to address ‘Vijay Shankhnad’ rally and kick-off the party’s election campaign for the assembly polls, likely to be held in October this year.
The party began its poll campaign from Thanesar assembly seat, represented by minister of state Subhash Sudha. Similar campaigns will be organised in rest of the 89 seats.
During his address, Pradhan asked if the Selja camp leader’s are fine with accepting Hooda their leader. He also hit-out at Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda’s ‘Haryana Maange Hisaab’ yatra.
“Elections are set to take place within a few months. Our (state president) Mohanlal Badoli will lead the campaign and take along all leaders. Captain Abhimanyu, OP Dhankar, JP Dalal, Kartik Sharma, Krishan Panwar, Kiran Chaudhary, Rao Inderjeet, Krishan Pal and our Manohar Lal will also join our captain Nayab Saini,” he said, asking who will be the captain of Congress.
“Has it been decided if father (ex-CM Bhupinder Hooda) is captain or the son (Deepender). They should first decide at home who will be the ‘Chaudhary’. Also, will other leaders accept them? If (Sirsa MP Kumari) Selja or (Rajya Sabha MP Randeep) Surjewala are ready to accept Deepender as their leader? But here, all the leaders on the stage have gathered under Saini to take part in this dharamyudh at Kurukshetra,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Has it been decided if father (ex-CM Bhupinder Hooda) is captain or the son (Deepender). They should first decide at home who will be the ‘Chaudhary’. Also, will other leaders accept them? If (Sirsa MP Kumari) Selja or (Rajya Sabha MP Randeep) Surjewala are ready to accept Deepender as their leader? But here, all the leaders on the stage have gathered under Saini to take part in this dharamyudh at Kurukshetra,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}He also hit-out at the 10 years of Congress rule under Hooda and compared it with the 10 years of BJP’s . He lauded the BJP government’s achievements in providing jobs and bringing transparency in works.
“They are asking for ‘hisaab’ from us. First you should give ‘hisaab’ on how you exploited dalits, farmers and other communities. You have to give ‘hisaab’ to the public. They should decide who will give hisaab, will it be Bhupinder Hooda or his son. From our side, we’ve nominated our captain Nayab Singh Saini to give ‘hisaab’ to the public,” he said.
Earlier, CM Saini, BJP’s co-incharge for polls Biplab Deb, state president Mohanlal Badoli, local MLA Sudha and local MP Naveen Jindal addressed the gathering.
Central election in-charges, several cabinet ministers, union ministers from Haryana, member of parliaments, MLAs and leaders were present, while the absence of some big names like former home minister and six-time MLA Anil Vij, union minister and Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjeet Singh, former MP Kuldeep Bishnoi and former minister Captain Abhimanyu raised some eyebrows.
Serving ministers in the state government, including agriculture minister Kanwar Pal, and transport minister (independent charge) Aseem Goel were also absent.