Haryana Congress has received 102 applications from ticket aspirants for the 10 lok Sabha seats in the State.
It received 15 applications from Ambala, 13 each from Kurukshetra and Sirsa, 18 from Hisar, 3 from Karnal, 22 from Sonipat, 1 from Rohtak, 5 from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, 10 from Gurgaon and 2 from Faridabad.
State Congress President Phul Chand Mullana remained tight-lipped on the applicants. “There was only one candidate from Rohtak, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son and sitting MP Deepender Singh Hooda, who expressed his desire to contest the polls again," said a party source.
Excise and Taxation Minister Kiran Choudhry’s daughter Shruti Choudhry for Bhiwani and Minister for urban local bodies in the State cabinet Savitri Jindal’s son, Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra have also sent their biodata to the state Congress office at Chandigarh”, sources said. Both are sitting MPs from Bhiwani and Kurukshetra.
Sources added that sitting MPs Avtar Singh Bhadana from Faridabad, Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa, Arvind Sharma from Karnal and Union Minister and Ambala MP Kumari Selja have also expressed their interest to contest the polls from their respective constituencies.
When contacted, Ashok Tanwar refused to comment saying it was up to the party high command to select the candidates. Congress is expected to chose three new candidates this time. Jitender Malik from Sonipat has decided to contest the Assembly polls and Rao Inderjit Singh from Gurgaon is expected to join BJP soon.