Haryana Assembly Elections 2024: A day after the announcement of the party candidates, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Ratia MLA Lakshman Napa resigned from the primary membership of the party today (September 5).
Denied ticket for the October 5 Haryana Assembly polls, ruling BJP legislator from Ratia reserve assembly constituency Lakshman Dass Napa has quit the party. Napa, in a letter to state party chief Mohan Lal Badoli, shortly after the BJP put out the first list of 67 candidates for the polls, said he was quitting the party and resigning from its primary membership.
Napa is likely to join Congress at 4:00 pm today.
From Ratia, the party has fielded former Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Duggal had been denied re-nomination from the Sirsa parliamentary constituency after former Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, who had joined BJP ahead of the LS polls, was given the ticket.
Tanwar, however, lost to Congress veteran Kumari Selja. In its first list released on Wednesday, the BJP fielded Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who is the sitting MLA from Karnal, from the Ladwa seat, and rewarded several recent entrants to the party with poll tickets.
Darshan Giri Maharaj resigns
Meanwhile, a leader from Haryana's Hisar Darshan Giri Maharaj also resigned from the party on Thursday.
Karan Dev Kamboj leaves BJP
Haryana BJP OBC Morcha state president and former minister Karan Dev Kamboj also resigned from all posts of BJP. Kamboj is not happy after denying a ticket from the Indri assembly seat. He said that my next decision will be based on what my supporters will decide.
The BJP is aiming for a hattrick in the Haryana Assembly polls but faces a tough challenge from a resurgent Congress which is looking to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor. Saini is the BJP's chief ministerial face for the assembly polls. The counting of votes for the elections to the 90-member assembly will take place on October 8.
BJP's list of candidates for Haryana
Ruling BJP on Wednesday (September 4) fielded Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini from the Ladwa seat, shifting him from Karnal, and rewarded several recent entrants to the party with poll tickets as it released the first list of 67 candidates for the elections to the 90-member assembly.
Members of some of the prominent political families also find their names in the list released a day before the nomination process starts, with the party trying to accommodate many senior leaders as well.
8 women candidates names announced in BJP list
Eight women also figure in the first list of candidates. More than half of BJP's 41 MLAs in the state have been renominated. Former Haryana BJP chief Om Prakash Dhankar, who is the party's national secretary, has been fielded from Badli while veteran party leader Anil Vij will seek re-election from his Ambala Cantt stronghold.
Devender Singh Babli, who switched over to the BJP from the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) a few days ago, as well as Sanjay Kablana and Shruti Choudhry, who joined the ruling party recently, will contest from the Tohana, Beri and Tosham seats, respectively.
Shruti is the granddaughter of former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal and the daughter of senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Choudhry. Also, Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh's daughter Aarti Singh Rao will contest from Ateli.
A few of Rao Inderjit's loyalists have also been rewarded with tickets from south Haryana. Former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi has been re-nominated from his Adampur constituency. Bhavya is the son of senior BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi.
In Karnal, which is currently represented in the Assembly by Chief Minister Saini, the BJP has fielded senior leader Jagmohan Anand who is considered close to Union Minister and former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
Ladwa, where the chief minister will contest, falls in the Kurukshetra district from where 54-year-old Saini remained an MP from 2019-2024. Senior BJP leader and ex-minister Capt Abhimanyu has been fielded from the Narnaund seat.
Notably, OP Dhankar and Capt Abhimanyu were ministers during the BJP's first term in Haryana from 2014-2019, but both lost the 2019 polls. Rajya Sabha MP Krishan Lal Panwar has been fielded from the Israna (SC) seat.
