Chander Mohan pulls back his name from Karnal
Succumbing to the pressure mounted by its political ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) has to withdraw name of Chander Mohan within 24-hours of announcing his candidature from Karnal Lok Sabha seat.
Succumbing to the pressure mounted by its political ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) has to withdraw name of Chander Mohan within 24-hours of announcing his candidature from Karnal Lok Sabha seat.
BJP-HJC alliance has an agreement to contest on eight and two seats of Haryana parliamentary segments, respectively.
On Tuesday HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi had announced the candidature of his elder brother Chander Mohan. However, at a hurriedly convened press conference here on Wednesday afternoon, former deputy chief minister Chander Mohan said that he was convinced with the feedback that a Brahmin candidate should be fielded from Karnal.
“Several Brahmin leaders were contacting since Tuesday that my father late Bhajan Lal wanted a Brahmin leader to be fielded from Karnal. Respecting their sentiments, I took a decision of withdrawing my name,” said the leader who had represented the Kalka assembly constituency four times in a row.
However, he showed strong reservation on the name of Venod Sharma as a HJC candidate from Karnal. He denied that HJC was keen to induct the Venod into the party fold.
“It all was a media creation and if Venod gives in writing about his desire to join the HJC it may be considered. I am firm that anyone except Venod would be HJC nominee from Karnal,” said the visibly upset leader.
He contested the allegations that HJC was promoting family members. “Kuldeep is a seasoned politician and his decision (to field me) was prompted by the response of the party workers. ,” he said.
However, Hindustan Times has learnt that the BJP leadership took a strong objection to the Chander Mohan’s controversial past and pressed for a change in the candidature.
In 2008, Mohan, as the then deputy CM, made headlines after he went missing. He reemerged in December 2008 as Chand Mohammad as he had embraced Islam to marry Anuradha Bali alias Fiza, former additional advocate general of the Haryana government.
At that time, he was already married and had two children.
He was disowned by the Bhajan Lal family and ostracised from the Bishnoi community. Following an uproar, chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda dropped Chander Mohan as his deputy.
Ever since Chander Mohan was maintaining a low public profile.
Meanwhile, sources said that BJP pleaded its case that Karnal was a winnable seat if a clean candidate was fielded against Arvind Sharma, the two-time Congress parliamentarian.
Showing their reservations, the BJP leaders said that Mohan’s past would be exploited by the opponents.
Also, the HJC got feelers from its ally that allotting both tickets to the family members would project the alliance in the bad light.
It is for the second time that BJP objected to the HJC’s choice of candidates.
Earlier this month when the veteran Congress leader Venod Sharma showed his intention to join the HJC, it was strongly opposed by the senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj.
BJP-HJC alliance has an agreement to contest on eight and two seats of Haryana parliamentary segments, respectively.
On Tuesday HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi had announced the candidature of his elder brother Chander Mohan. However, at a hurriedly convened press conference here on Wednesday afternoon, former deputy chief minister Chander Mohan said that he was convinced with the feedback that a Brahmin candidate should be fielded from Karnal.