Satpal Sangwan, who was a minister in the Congress government and a two-time MLA, joined the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), a splinter outfit of the Indian National Lok Dal in Delhi, in the presence of senior JJP leader Dushyant Chautala on Tuesday.
Another Congress leader, former Rajya Sabha MP (2008-14) and former MLA Ishwar Singh also joined the JJP. Satpal Sangwan, native of Dadri has been considered to be close to Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Sangwan said he was disappointed that the Congress appeared to have opted to field someone else from the Dadri seat. “I had helped Hooda form his government in 2009 but he has betrayed me by not reposing faith in me at screening committee meeting. Now I have decided to join JJP and contest from Dadri. The Congress party would give ticket to a woman, who has been active in Dadri for just a month,” he added.
He also took a dig at BJP nominee Babita Phogat, a wrestler. Sangwan said the people of Dadri will elect an active insider, not an outsider. Babita Phogat’s native village Balali falls under Badhra constituency, from where BJP has decided to field sitting MLA Sukhvinder Sheoran. The Congress is likely to field either Manisha Sangwan or Narpender Sangwan from Dadri.
Satpal has won the Dadri assembly seat twice; once in 1996 on Bansi Lal’s then Haryana Vikas Party ticket and later in 2009, from Bhajan Lal’s Haryana Janhit Congress. However, when the Congress needed support of six MLAs to form government in 2009, he along with four other MLAs of six Haryana Janhit Congress legislators joined Congress and enjoyed a ministerial birth. However, nearly five years later in 2014, Haryana and Punjab high court disqualified him and four other legislators under anti-defection law.