The BJP on Tuesday released second list of its candidates, dropping six-sitting MLAs, including two Ministers for the Haryana Assembly polls. The BJP has fielded Captain Yogesh Bairagi from Julana against Congress’s Olympian candidate Vinesh Phogat while two former Ministers -Krishan Kumar Bedi and Manish Grover have been fielded from Narwana and Rohtak seats, respectively. The list also includes two Muslim candidates: Naseem Ahmed from Ferozepur Jhirka and Aizaz Khan from Punahana. With this, the BJP has fielded 87 candidates and three segments where the party is yet to announce the candidates are Faridabad-NIT, Sirsa and Mahendergarh.
The party’s Pehowa candidate, Sardar Kamaljeet Singh Ajrana, was also replaced by Jai Bhagwan Sharma after he expressed his inability to contest the poll on party ticket citing Opposition from the local Leaders. Ajrana was named in the first list after dropping sitting MLA and former Sports Minister Sandeep Singh, who is an accused in a sexual harassment case.
The BJP denied ticket to Minister Banwari Lal, who represented Bawal in the outgoing Assembly, and fielded Krishna Kumar in his place. School Education Minister Seema Trikha, the incumbent MLA of Badhkal, has also been denied re-nomination. Dhanesh Adlakha has been nominated for the seat. The party has fielded former Ministers Krishan Kumar Bedi, Manish Grover and Om Prakash Yadav from Narwana, Rohtak and Narnaul seats, respectively.
It also dropped Hodal (SC) MLA Jagdish Nayar, Hathin MLA Praveen Dagar, Pataudi (SC) MLA Satya Prakash and Ganaur MLA Nirmal Rani. Amit Chand Mehta will contest from Ellenabad from where senior INLD Leader Abhay Singh Chautala is seeking re-election.
A new candidate has been named for the Rai Assembly segment, after incumbent legislator and Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli made it clear that he would not contest the polls and instead work to ensure the party’s victory. The ruling party also denied tickets to the sitting MLAs from Ganaur, Pataudi, Hathin and Hodal seats. Yogender Rana has been fielded from Assandh, Devender Kaushik from Ganaur, and Pradeep Sangwan from Baroda.
In place of BJP State president Mohan Lal Badoli, who had announced to opt out of the contest, the BJP has fielded Krishna Gahlawat from Rai.
However, another Minister Sanjay Singh, the MLA from Sohna, has been given ticket from Nuh. The party has fielded Pawan Saini, considered close to Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, from the Naraingarh seat while Satpal Jamba has been nominated to fight the polls from from Pundri.
The list, notified by BJP national general secretary Arun Singh, has names of candidates for 21 assembly seats in the state.
Baldev Singh Mangiana will fight the Dabwali seat, Manish Grover has been nominated for Rohtak, Krishna Kumar for Bawal (SC), Bimla Chaudhary for Pataudi (SC), Manoj Rawat from Hathin, Harinder Singh Ramrattan from Hodal (SC) while Dhanesh Adlakha will contest from Badkhal.
While eight women figured in the first list of candidates, the BJP’s second list has two women — Krishna Gahlawat from the Rai seat and Bimla Chaudhary from the Pataudi (SC) segment.Bimla Chaudhary replaced Satya Prakash Jarawata who was denied renomination while Devender Kaushik has been given ticket for the Ganaur seat, replacing sitting MLA Nirmal Chaudhary.
In the first list of 67 candidates, the party fielded Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini from Karnal to the Ladwa seat. Saini served as the MP from Kurukshetra between 2019 and 2024. Prominent Leaders like former State BJP president Om Prakash Dhankar, who now holds a national secretary role in the party, have been fielded from the Badli constituency. Another key figure, Anil Vij, the veteran party Leader and former State Minister, is set to contest from his traditional stronghold of Ambala Cantt.
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Tuesday filed his nomination as the BJP candidate for the Ladwa constituency in the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections. He was joined by Union Minister and former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, along with other party leaders, during the nomination process.
Further bolstering the possibility of going it alone in the State, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday released its second list of candidates for the Haryana Assembly elections. In its second list, the AAP has announced the candidates for Indri, Sadhaura, Thanesar, Ratia, Adampur, Barwala, Tigaon, Faridabad and Bawal constituencies. Hawa Singh has been fielded from Indri and Pravesh Mehta from Faridabad. The second list included three more Assembly seats — Thanesar, Bawal and Faridabad - out of the 46 that the party had contested in the 2019 Assembly elections of which two, Sadhaura and Thanesar overlap with those where candidates declared by the Congress are also contesting.
