Haryana’s main Opposition party Indian National lok Dal (INlD) on Thursday released the second list of party candidates containing names of 11 contestants, including two sitting MlAs, to test electoral battle in the State slated to go to polls in October.
In the second list of candidates, senior leaders of the party, including Abhay Chautala and State party president Ashok Arora, tried to accommodate those aspirants who had been left out in its first list of 62 candidates on August 1.The party had to suffer the consequences as more than a dozen senior leaders, including sitting and former MlAs left the party. In the second list, INlD accommodated its sitting and former MlAs including Ram Pal Majra for Kalayat, Rao Bahadur
Singh for Mahendergarh and former MlA Zakir Hussain for Nuh constituency.Ram Pal Majra and other senior leaders had expressed strong resentment when party leadership didn’t include their names in the first list of candidates, though party had expressed its trust on several new faces in the first list of candidates.
Tickets have also been given to district President Kailash Bhagat for Kaithal, Balwan Singh Daulatpuria for Fatehabad, Nirmal Chaudhary for Gannaur, Anup Dhanak for Uklana, Satyavir Yadav for Ateli, lalit Kumar Bansal for Ballabhgarh, Teja Dalal Pehlwan for Bahadurgarh and Sadhu Ram for Jhajjar assembly constituency in Haryana.
After the second list of 11 candidates, the total numbers of candidates declared by INlD has gone up to 73. Only 17 candidates remain to be announced. So far, none of the main parties have declared their candidates.INlD has suffered as party’s supremo and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and his MlA son and party’s Secretary General Ajay Singh Chautala are serving ten years jail term in a teacher’s recruitment scandal.
INlD is contesting the upcoming Assembly polls in Haryana in alliance with Punjab’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), where the party is a major partner of BJP.
INlD leader joins Congress
The main opposition in Haryana, Indian National lok Dal (INlD) received a jolt on Thursday when President of Kandela Khap Panchayat Chaudhary Tek Ram joined the Congress along with his of supporters by quitting INlD in the presence of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in New Delhi. Tek Ram said that after serving INlD for 22 years, he has given resignation from all posts and primary membership of the party.
Expressing faith in the leadership of Hooda, he said that, he has given unconditional support to the Congress keeping in view the functioning of Hooda. He said that Khap Panchayats of the State has been raising issues like Swaminathan Report, female foeticide and other social issues. He said that Hooda would become the Chief Minister of Haryana for third consecutive term also and would give further boost to the development work in the State.