Gurgaon: Of BJP’s 10 candidates who will contest from Haryana in the coming Lok Sabha election, six have past association with the party’s main rival in state — Congress.Two of the six joined BJP recently.
Naveen Jindal, The chairperson of Jindal Steel and Power, joined the party hours before his candidature was announced. The two-time Congress MP is retaining his nomination from Kurukshetra, but with the BJP this time.
The last time Jindal won the seat was in 2009.He lost the election in 2014 and did not contest in 2019.
Ashok Tanwar, once considered close to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, joined the BJP last month.
A Dalit leader, Tanwar is a former Sirsa MP and a former Haryana Congress president who resigned from the party in 2019. He switched over to the Trinamool Congress in November 2021 and embraced AAP in April 2022.
He is again contesting from Sirsa.Congress and AAP have agreed on a pre-poll alliance in the state, with AAP’s Haryana chief Sunil Gupta contesting from Kurukshetra. Congress has not declared its candidates for the remaining nine Lok Sabha constituencies.
The other BJP candidates with past links with the Congress are — Ranjeet Chautala from Hisar, Arvind Kumar Sharma from Rohtak, Rao Inderjeet Singh from Gurgaon and Dharambir Singh from Mahendergarh-Bhiwani.
Chautala had contested the 2019 Haryana assembly election from Rania constituency as an Independent. He was a minister in the BJP-led Manohar Lal Khattar govt, and was retained in the Nayab Saini govt. He was with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Janata Dal and the Congress. He joined BJP a day before he was made the party’s candidate for Lok Sabha election from Hisar.
Arvind Kumar Sharma, a dentist by profession, left the Congress in 2014 to join BSP, which had named him the party’s CM candidate from Haryana. He lost the assembly election and in 2019, joined the BJP, defeating Deepender Singh Hooda of the Congress from Rohtak.This time, BJP has trusted Sharma to win the Rohtak LS constituency, considered a Congress stronghold.
Incumbent Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh has represented the constituency for a record five times. He was first elected to Parliament in 1999 on a Congress ticket and clinched the constituency for the party in 2004 and 2009 as well.
Naveen Jindal, The chairperson of Jindal Steel and Power, joined the party hours before his candidature was announced. The two-time Congress MP is retaining his nomination from Kurukshetra, but with the BJP this time.
The last time Jindal won the seat was in 2009.He lost the election in 2014 and did not contest in 2019.
Ashok Tanwar, once considered close to former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, joined the BJP last month.
A Dalit leader, Tanwar is a former Sirsa MP and a former Haryana Congress president who resigned from the party in 2019. He switched over to the Trinamool Congress in November 2021 and embraced AAP in April 2022.
He is again contesting from Sirsa.Congress and AAP have agreed on a pre-poll alliance in the state, with AAP’s Haryana chief Sunil Gupta contesting from Kurukshetra. Congress has not declared its candidates for the remaining nine Lok Sabha constituencies.
The other BJP candidates with past links with the Congress are — Ranjeet Chautala from Hisar, Arvind Kumar Sharma from Rohtak, Rao Inderjeet Singh from Gurgaon and Dharambir Singh from Mahendergarh-Bhiwani.
Chautala had contested the 2019 Haryana assembly election from Rania constituency as an Independent. He was a minister in the BJP-led Manohar Lal Khattar govt, and was retained in the Nayab Saini govt. He was with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Janata Dal and the Congress. He joined BJP a day before he was made the party’s candidate for Lok Sabha election from Hisar.
Arvind Kumar Sharma, a dentist by profession, left the Congress in 2014 to join BSP, which had named him the party’s CM candidate from Haryana. He lost the assembly election and in 2019, joined the BJP, defeating Deepender Singh Hooda of the Congress from Rohtak.This time, BJP has trusted Sharma to win the Rohtak LS constituency, considered a Congress stronghold.
Incumbent Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh has represented the constituency for a record five times. He was first elected to Parliament in 1999 on a Congress ticket and clinched the constituency for the party in 2004 and 2009 as well.
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