Looking to get the first-mover advantage in the Haryana Assembly polls, the BJP on Wednesday released its first list of 67 candidates for the 90 Assembly seats for the upcoming Assembly elections, with Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini to contest the Ladwa seat while former Haryana BJP president Om Prakash Dhankar has been fielded from Badli and veteran party leader and former home minister Anil Vij from Ambala Cantonment. The party has dropped nine sitting MLAs. 

Saini, who was an MP from Kurukshetra until he replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the Haryana Chief Minister in March this year, currently represents the Karnal Assembly seat, which he won in a bypoll in June. Vij will be the BJP’s candidate from the Ambala Cantonment constituency, a seat he has won three successive times since 2009.

Some of the other key figures that have been given an opportunity to represent the BJP in the Haryana Assembly election include, former BJP MP Sunita Duggal from Ratia, former BJP Lok Sabha MP Kuldeep Bishnoi’s son Bhavya Bishnoi from Adampur and Aarti Singh, daughter of Union Minister of Planning, Statistics and Programme Implementation Rao Inderjit Singh, from Ateli.

 The other candidates include Ambala Mayor and former Union Minister Vinod Sharma’s wife Shakti Rani Sharma, who will be contesting from the Kalka assembly constituency. Shakti Rani Sharma is the mother of Manu Sharma, a convict in the Jessica Lal murder case. Shruti Choudhry who left the Congress and joined the BJP with her mother - Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Choudhry - in June has been given a ticket from Tosham. Also, Rao Narbir Singh, who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his future in the party recently and had reportedly threatened to rebel if not approached by the party high-command, has been fielded from Badshahpur.

The names of Capt Abhimanyu, Bhavya Bishnoi, the son of Kuldeep Bishnoi, and former MP Sunita Duggal are also on the list. The assembly polls are scheduled to be held on October 5, and the counting of votes will take place on October 8.

Devender Singh Babli, Sanjay Kablana and Shruti Choudhry, who joined the BJP recently, will contest from the Tohana, Beri and Tosham seats, respectively. However, former captain of the Indian national hockey team, Sandeep Singh, has been dropped from Pehowa seat. Instead of Singh, Sardar Kamaljeet Singh Ajrana would contest on the BJP ticket from the constituency. Additionally, Kabbadi player Deepak Hooda has been given a ticket from Meham.

Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta has been fielded from Panchkula, former Speaker Kanwar Pal Gurjar from Jagadhri, Captain Abhimanyu from Narnaund, former Lok Sabha member Sunita Duggal from Ratia.

The BJP high-command dropped nine sitting MLAs from the first list while the seats of two MLAs were also changed.Palwal MLA Deepak Mangla, Faridabad MLA Narendra Gupta, Gurugram MLA Sudhir Singhla, Bhawani Khera MLA Vishambhar Malik, Cabinet Minister Ranjit Chautala from Rania, Sitaram Yadav from Ateli, former minister Sandeep Singh from Pehwa, Sanjay Singh from Sohna and Laxman Napa from Ratia have missed the bus. MP Naveen Jindal’s mother, Savitri Jindal, who was widely expected to get a ticket from Hisar, has not made the cut and the party has decided to stick with the incumbent, Kamal Gupta, who is also a state minister.

While Aseem Goel has been fielded from Ambala City, Santosh Sarwan from Mulana (SC), Balwant Singh from Sadhaura (SC), Kanwar Pal Gurjar from Jagadhri, Ghanshyam Dass Arora from Yamunanagar, Shyam Singh Rana from Radaur, Subhash Kalsana from Shahbad (SC), Subhash Sudha from Thanesar, Sardar Kamaljeet Singh Ajrana from Pehowa, Kulwant Bazigar from Guhla (SC), Kamlesh Dhanda from Kalayat, Leela Ram Gurjar from Kaithal, Bhagwan Dass Kabirpanthi from Nilokheri (SC), Ram Kumar Kashyap from Indr, Jagmohan Anand from Karnal, Harvinder kalian from Gharaunda, Mahipal Dhanda from Panipat raural, Pramod Kumar Vij from Panipat City, Krishna Lal Panwar from Irana (SC), Manmohan Bhadana from Samalkha ,Mukesh Sharma from Gurgaon,  Gaurav Gautam from Palwal, Tel Chand Sharma from Prithla, Mool Chand Sharma from Ballabgarh, Vipul Goel from Faridabad and Rajesh Nagar from Tigaon seat.

The names of the candidates were discussed and finalised in a BJP meeting that was chaired by the party’s national president, JP Nadda on August 29. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other members of the BJP’s Central Election Committee were also present.

The major political parties in the fray include the BJP, Congress, AAP, the JJP-ASP alliance, and the BSP-INLD alliance.   In the last elections in 2019, BJP won 40 seats in Haryana Assembly polls, Congress logged victory on 31 seats, while JJP got 10 seats. BJP formed a coalition government with the JJP but earlier this year, they broke the alliance. The current term of the Haryana Assembly ends on November 3, 2024.

The BJP’s list comes hours after Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) released its first list of 19 party candidates in alliance with Azad Samaj Party. Former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala will contest from Uchana Kalan, from where he is a sitting MLA. While 15 candidates on the list were from the JJP, four were from the Chandra Shekhar Azad-led ASP.