A day after the BJP released its first list of 67 candidates for the October 5 Haryana Assembly elections, discontent among party leaders, including Ministers in the Nayab Saini Cabinet, flared up. Several leaders expressed their dissatisfaction, with several resigning from their posts on Thursday.
Among them were Haryana Energy Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala, Minister of State Bishamber Singh Balmiki, Ratia MLA Laxman Napa, former Ministers Karan Dev Kamboj, Kavita Jain, MP Savitri Jindal, MLA Lakshman Napa who had raised the banner of revolt. The rebel trouble for BJP started shortly after it came out with the first list of candidates as it left many sulking.
Interestingly, the BJP has named former prison official Sunil Sangwan — who recommended parole for Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Ram Rahim six times — on its list of candidates for next month’s Haryana Assembly election.
Sangwan will contest the Dadri seat which former BJP leader Somveer Sangwan won as an Independent in 2019 that was after the party favoured wrestler Babita Phogat over him.
Energy and Jail Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala (79), son of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal said he took a decision after a meeting with his supporters and will now enter the fray as an Independent. Ranjit Chautala called a meeting of his supporters after the party ignored his candidature from Rania segment in Sirsa district.”I had good relations with them (BJP). They gave me the Lok Sabha ticket (from Hisar, which he fought unsuccessfully). But don’t know on whose advice they have acted. I will say anyone who has given them this advice has caused damage to the party,” Chautala said.
“I am Chaudhary Devi Lal’s son. I have some stature... I have decided to contest as an Independent,” he said, while adding he has resigned as a Minister and quit the BJP. Chautala was hoping to contest from Rania seat but the BJP fielded Shishpal Kamboj instead.
Ranjit had resigned as Independent MLA from Rania ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to join the BJP and fought the Hisar parliamentary seat unsuccessfully.
Napa, sitting MLA from Ratia reserve constituency in Fatehabad district resigned from the party on Thursday and hinted to join the Congress in New Delhi in the presence of Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress state president Udaibhan and other senior leaders of the Congress party. The party ignored him and announced former Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal from the Ratia (SC) seat.
After quitting the party, Napa met former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his residence in the national capital and later said he will be joining the Congress along with his supporters. Napa, in a letter to state party chief Mohan Lal Badoli shortly after the BJP put out the first list of 67 candidates for the polls, said he was resigning from the party’s primary membership.
In another jolt to the BJP after it put out the first list of candidates, former minister Karan Dev Kamboj said he has resigned as state president of Haryana BJP’s OBC Morcha and from all party posts he held. Kamboj, who was also a ticket hopeful but did not get it, said he had been serving the party over the years with dedication.
“Perhaps the BJP does not need loyalists anymore,” he said, adding the party is rewarding leaders with tickets who joined a day before while ignoring those who served it for years.
Savitri Jindal, BJP’s Kurukshetra MP who is industrialist Naveen Jindal’s mother, announced that she would contest from Hisar. She was also seeking a ticket from the BJP to contest from Hisar, but the ruling party nominated its MLA and Minister Dr Kamal Gupta from the seat.
Bishamber Singh Balmiki, a Minister of State Social Justice, Empowerment, Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes and Antyodaya (SEWA) (Independent charge), also called a meeting of his supporters at his residence. The BJP ignored the sitting Bawani Khera MLA and instead nominated Kapur Valmiki from the SC reserved seat.
A few sitting legislators, including minister Sanjay Singh and former minister Sandeep Singh, do not figure in the first list of BJP candidates. From Ratia, the party has fielded former Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Duggal was denied re-nomination from the Sirsa parliamentary constituency after former Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, who had joined BJP ahead of the LS polls, was given the ticket.Tanwar, however, lost to Congress veteran Kumari Selja.
Former Haryana minister and senior BJP leader Kavita Jain, a ticket hopeful from Sonipat, was also sulking after party fielded Nikhil Madan from the constituency.Addressing her supporters in Sonipat, she turned emotional, and said she had always worked as a dedicated soldier for her party and her candidature should have been considered.
