Chander Mohan withdraws from contest for Karnal lS seat

Published on:

20 Mar 2014, 12:00 am

In the ongoing saga in Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), former deputy Chief Minister and son of former Chief Minister Bhajan lal, Chander Mohan on Wednesday decided to withdraw from the contest for Karnal parliamentary seat, saying Brahmins wanted a member of their community to be fielded from the constituency.

“I took my name back and have communicated this to the party. My father the late Bhajan lal desired to give this seat to Brahmin Samaj”, Chander Mohan told reporters in Karnal. Now, Avinash Paliwal, a Brahmin and businessman from Karnal, is expected to be the party candidate.

He said a delegation of the Brahmin leaders met him and they felt that Karnal seat should be fought by a member of the community. At present, Karnal seat is represented by Congress' Arvind Sharma, a Brahmin, who is seeking re-election. Sources said that a section of leaders of HJC's ally BJP were opposed to fielding of Mohan for the seat, who has been mired in controversy in the past. He had converted himself to Islam to marry one, Anuradha Bali alias Fiza, and then re-converted as Bishnoi.

There was also criticism in BJP circles that it was dynastic politics in the HJC as two brothers were contesting the lok Sabha polls while party chief Kuldeep Bishnoi’s wife is the only MlA of the party. Bishnoi himself is seeking re-election from Hisar. Earlier, Venod Sharma, former Union Minister and Ambala MlA, was set to join the HJC and contest from Karnal after he quit the Congress on March 5, but the plan was scuttled owing to stiff resistance by a section of BJP leaders who were opposed to his entry either in the saffron party or joining their ally.

State BJP president Ram Bilas Sharma had also expressed his desire to contest elections for this seat, but Kuldeep Bishnoi remained adamant. As per the seat-sharing formula with the BJP, HJC has got two seats while the remaining eight have gone to the saffron party. The Haryana BJP refused to comment over this development. “It is their internal party matter, we can’t comment over it”, said Vir Kumar Yadav, spokesperson of the State BJP.

Venod Sharma to float regional party for Assembly polls

Former Congress leader Venod Sharma has decided to focus on Assembly elections later this year and not on parliamentary polls. Talking to reporters after a party workers’ meeting in Chandigarh, he said, “I am preparing for Assembly elections”. Sharma is expected to float a regional party for the Assembly polls in October this year. For electoral purposes, he has divided Haryana in three parts-southern Haryana, northern Haryana and rural Haryana. For southern Haryana, he had chaired a meeting of party workers at Gurgaon, whereas on Wednesday he called a meeting of party workers from northern part including Ambala, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar and Panchkula at his residence. When asked about the announcement of a new party, he said, “It would be announced after approval of party workers”. Sharma may announce the formation of a new party after the parliamentary elections.