With the declaration of the first list of candidates for the Haryana Assembly polls, the BJP suffered a blow when several disgruntled leaders miffed about not getting poll tickets either quit their party or ministerial posts or raised the banner of rebellion.
One of the biggest setbacks was the resignation of state OBC Morcha president Karan Dev Kamboj, who chaired a meeting of all 36 biradaris (OBC castes) in Radaur in Yamunanagar district, the seat whose ticket he wanted. He said that at the meeting, BJP workers decided that they might contest as Independents if the BJP does not accommodate their names in the lists to follow.
Talking to reporters in Yamunanagar, Kamboj said, “I have not quit the BJP but I have quit my post as the Haryana OBC Morcha president. The tickets for the Assembly elections have been distributed wrongly. They have given tickets to rebels who stabbed the party in the back in the past.” He further said, “Shyam Singh Rana has been fielded from Radaur instead of me. He has been a defaulter of the party and the people. Had they fielded a committed worker instead of me, I would have had no problem.”
He further said, “I prepared myself for any one of two seats: Indri and Radaur. From Indri, they gave the ticket to the sitting MLA Ram Kumar Kashyap. He has a bad image and will lose badly. From Radaur, they have fielded Rana, who quit the party for five years and joined the INLD. He joined the BJP again after the (recent) Lok Sabha elections and was fielded immediately after that. For those five years, he was publicly criticising even the Prime Minister. What is the purpose of fielding such a person?”
He further said, “State Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini came to meet me, but I do not want to divulge the details of the conversation. He said, “Let us see what happens. If wrong tickets are distributed, people will quit (the BJP). There were other issues such as the farm agitation, but their impact was gradually diminishing. But why will committed workers work if the party fields opportunists? It seems the party will defeat itself if it gives the wrong tickets.”
Ranjit Singh Chautala, State minister for power, jails and new and renewable energy, resigned from the cabinet and announced that he would contest as an independent from Rania seat of Sirsa.
Similarly, Savitri Jindal, India's richest woman and mother of BJP's Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal, also declared that she would contest as an independent candidate from Hisar against health minister Kamal Gupta. Many other BJP leaders have warned the party to contest the election as independents.
