Amid continuing suspense over Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi’s next political move, his son Bhavya Bishnoi, who is staking claim for a party ticket from Hisar Lok Sabha seat, has already gone into the campaign mode.
Even as uncertainty prevails over Kuldeep Bishnoi’s political association with the Congress following his absence from party’s events in the recent past, it is no secret that he wants to secure a ticket for his son Bhavya from Hisar Lok Sabha seat.
Reports of him considering switching sides to the BJP have also been doing the rounds since long but Kuldeep Bishnoi has denied it. Recently it was also reported that Kuldeep is in touch with the BJP leaders as well to get a ticket for his son from Hisar parliamentary seat but the Congress leader has refuted the reports.
Kuldeep, who also served as Hisar MP in the past, himself, remains a frontrunner for Congress’ ticket from the seat even though he is pushing for his son’s candidature, which may be approved by the party high command. Kuldeep is MLA from Adampur assembly segment while his wife, Renuka is MLA from Hansi constituency, both assembly segments falls in Hisar Lok Sabha seat.
Hoping to make his political debut in ensuing Lok Sabha polls, Bhavya, a young third-generation politician in Haryana and grandson of three-time former
Chief Minister Bansi Lal is busy reaching out to the voters of Hisar through coordinated online and offline campaigns.
26-year-old Bhavya is quite active on social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and also, has an Andriod mobile App—Team Bhavya—which updates his supporters about his recent activities.
Besides issuing video messages on social media platforms sharing his vision for Hisar and making an appeal to the voters to carefully elect their next representatives, Bhavya has also released a vision document for Hisar which focuses on agriculture, employment and rural economy.
Interestingly, some of the key proposals in his vision document include making Hisar, the new capital of Haryana and advocates for the establishment of the SYL canal in exchange for Chandigarh being given to Punjab.
Proposals like introducing ‘Ch Bhajan Lal Dastakaari Fund’ for those working in the arts and crafts, a pro-farmer crop insurance scheme are among others shared by him on social media accounts.
Bhavya holds a bachelor’s degree in ‘Economics and Government’ from London School of Economics and Political Science and Master of Science from University of Oxford.
While it remains to be seen whether the Congress reposes its faith on Bhavya or his father or some another candidate for Hisar parliamentary seat, the father-son duo are busy holding public meetings to muster support and connect with the voters of Hisar.
Notably, Kuldeep Bishnoi had merged his Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) with the Congress in the year 2016.
Since the formation of coordination committee for Haryana for Lok Sabha polls under former Chief
Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kuldeep is giving a miss to party’s meetings and events. Except on the day of visit of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to Haryana last month, Kuldeep had even maintained distance from party’s statewide “Parivartan Yatra”.
In 2014 general elections, Dushyant Chautala, representing the fourth generation of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal on INLD’s ticket had defeated BJP-HJC nominee Kuldeep in Hisar Lok Sabha seat.
Kuldeep had earlier defeated Dushyant’s father Ajay Chautala in the 2011 bye-election in Hisar constituency, which had fallen vacant after the demise of Bhajan Lal, who had won the seat in 2009.
Dushyant Chautala has now floated separate political outfit, Jannayak Janta Party and is likely to contest from Hisar seat again.
The BJP is also yet to announce its Hisar candidate for the Lok Sabha polls and the state BJP president Subhash Barala, Finance Minister Capt. Abhimanyu, Veer Chakra awardee Capt Bhupinder (retd), Union Minister Birender Singh’s son IAS Brijender Singh and INLD turncoat Ranbir Gangwa (Nalwa MLA) are in the race for the ticket.
