Former Haryana Cabinet Minister Venod Sharma’s newly floated Haryana Jan Chetna Party on Friday announced the names of its candidates to fight the Assembly polls in the State.
Sharma, also a former Union Minister, who made an unsuccessful bid to join BJP and later to forge an alliance with Mayawati’s BSP and Gopal Kanda’s Haryana lokhit Party, declared the names of 19 contestants from his party at a press conference here.
The Jan Chetna Party is contesting the Haryana assembly polls in alliance with Kuldeep Bishnoi’s Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC-Bl).
Under the poll agreement between the two political outfits, Sharma’s party will contest 25 seats whereas Bishnoi has fielded his candidates on 65 seats out of the total 90 Assembly constituencies in poll bound Haryana. Bishnoi had on Thursday declared the list candidates of the party.
Sharma will himself contest from Ambala city. He has fielded his wife Shakti Rani from Kalka Assembly seat. Before floating the Jan Chetna Party, Sharma was associated with Congress for four decades and once was considered man Friday of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Among the 19 candidates also figure a former Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) member Vinay Sharma, who is daughter-in-law of Haryana’s first Chief Minister Bhagat Dyal Sharma. She is contesting from Yamunanagar seat.
Asserting that he had made attempts to give representation to all sections of society while allocating party tickets, Sharma said that the only criteria in selection of party contestants is the winnability factor.
He categorically ruled out forging alliance or giving support to Congress after the Assembly polls.
“There is no question of giving support or re-joining Congress after the polls,” he said on being asked about his possibility to return to the Congress fold. He lashed out at the ten years of Congress regime in Haryana saying that young deserving people were kept away from jobs.
“The Congress Government was not transparent in providing jobs to youths...there was regional bias in providing employment and development of Haryana,” Sharma said.
When asked whether he can support the BJP after the polls, he evaded a direct reply saying “in politics nothing is permanent.” He, however, said that there was lot of anger and resentment among people against the present Congress Government in Haryana.