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BJP springs surprise in south Haryana, Rao Narbir, Vipul Goel not in list of 78
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday sprung a surprise in distribution of tickets for the assembly polls, particularly in south Haryana, by not including sitting
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday sprung a surprise in distribution of tickets for the assembly polls, particularly in south Haryana, by not including sitting Badshahpur MLA and PWD minister Rao Narbir Singh, industries minister and Faridabad MLA Vipul Goel, and deputy speaker of the state assembly and MLA from Ateli Santosh Yadav in its list of 78 candidates.
These senior leaders have been replaced by those considered relatively newcomers to the electoral politics but old party hands, said party insiders. The ruling party released its first list of 78 candidates on Monday.
In the Gurugram district, the party has changed the candidates in three constituencies namely Badshahpur, Sohna and Pataudi, while the candidate for Gurgaon constituency has not been declared. Umesh Agarwal is the sitting MLA from Gurgaon and his name is likely to be decided in the next two days, said the party in a statement.
Manish Yadav from Chakkarpur village, who is the state president of BJP Yuva Morcha, has been given the ticket from Badshahpur in place of Rao Narbir Singh, who still has a chance to get a ticket from another constituency in south Haryana. Singh was not available for comment, but his office maintained that the decision of the party was paramount. Singh has been MLA thrice from different seats in Ahirwal belt.
The party has also not announced the names of its candidates for Rewari and Kosli constituencies, which control the pulse of regional politics.
The omission of industries minister Goel from the list has also surprised the political observers as he was a prominent face of the government. Goel has been replaced by Narender Gupta, who is the state treasurer of the party. In Ateli, the BJP gave the ticket to Sita Ram Yadav instead of sitting MLA Santosh Yadav.
When asked about the selection of candidates, a BJP spokesperson said that party has chosen a mix of candidates with preference to those with a clean image and those who had delivered in the last five years. “Those who have been given a ticket and those who could not get are equally meritorious,” said Jawahar Yadav, BJP state spokesperson.
In Sohna also, the saffron party went for a change and dropped the sitting MLA Tejpal Tanwar and gave the ticket to Sanjay Singh, who is from Ujhina in Mewat. Singh had earlier unsuccessfully fought as a BJP candidate from Nuh twice. Singh is the state executive member of the BJP and his father Kanwar Suraj Pal was also a cabinet minister in Haryana. Tanwar is a Gujjar leader while Singh comes from the Rajput community, which also has a strong presence in Sohna.
In Pataudi (reserved) constituency, the party decided to replace sitting MLA Bimla Chaudhary, who is considered close to Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh, with Satyaprakash Jarawta, who is a long-time BJP worker and considered close to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. He was also state spokesperson of the party.
The party also did not give its mandate to sitting MLA Rahish Khan from Punhana and the ticket was given to Nouksham Chaudhary. Khan had won the seat as independent in 2014 and had supported the BJP government when it was formed. Chaudhary is considered close to Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh.
However, the mandate in Nuh and Firozepur Jhirka went expectedly to new party entrants Zakir Hussain, sitting MLA from Nuh and Naseem Ahmed from Jhirka, who is also a sitting MLA. Both had recently joined the BJP.
In Bawal, the party gave ticket to Dr Banwari Lal, who is close to Gurgaon MP and in Narnaul the mandate was given to another Inderjit loyalist Om Prakash Yadav. In Nangal Chowdhary, the ticket was given to sitting party MLA Abhay Singh Yadav.
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