Amid speculations that he may contest the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, Indian National Lok Dal’s Haryana unit president Ashok Arora on Friday said that he will fight the parliamentary polls if his party asks him to do so.
Arora, a senior leader of the party, had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Haryana Assembly polls from Thanesar constituency in Kurukshetra district.
Arora while talking to the mediapersons in Kurukshetra on Friday said, “My wish is to contest the assembly elections, but if party asks me to contest the LS polls, then I will definitely contest.”
“The INLD will fight on all 10 seats,” he said adding the names of the candidates will be announced soon.
The 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana will go to polls in a single phase on May 12.
Arora said that after taking feedback from the people and in consultation with them and our party workers, we have prepared a panel of probable candidates , which has been sent to party’s national president Om Prakash Chautala.
“Soon, we will be meeting and consulting our party chief after which the names of candidates will be announced by April 16,” he said.
The INLD is looking to field popular faces to retain its Hisar and Sirsa seat besides winning other eight seats in Haryana. In paucity of heavyweight candidates, the party may field sitting MLAs to contest LS polls.
Recently, INLD secretary general Abhay Chautala had also hinted at fielding his sons Arjun and Karan for the electoral battle and said that people are demanding it. Also, there are speculations that Abhay Chautala may also contest the Lok Sabha polls to improve the poll prospects of the INLD, which has witnessed decline in its popularity after the formation of splinter group-Jannayak Janta Party.
While the INLD leaders are keeping cards close to their chest on probable candidates, some party leaders had recently floated the name of Abhay Chautala for the Hisar parliamentary seat. His nephew Dushyant Chautala was elected from Hisar Lok Sabha on INLD’ ticket in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Notably, the INLD, founded by late deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and headed by former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, has been out of power in Haryana for over 14 years now.
The party remains on the back foot after its split last year. While the INLD is struggling to stitch an alliance in Haryana after Bahujan Samaj Party deserted it, its leaders are also quitting the party one by one
Two of party’s sitting MLAs Ranbir Gangwa and Kehar Singh joined the BJP recently. A few of the party’s former legislators have also switched over to the saffron outfit ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Four INLD MLAs have already switched sides and announced their support to the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which was formed after the split in the INLD last year.