M A I N   N E W S

INLD fields VC of MDU from Rohtak
Tribune News Service

Pataudi (Gurgaon), March 23
The INLD today renominated three of its sitting MPs from the Bhiwani, Sirsa and Hisar parliamentary constituencies while announcing its nominees for the eight out of 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana.

It has named the former Union Minister, Mr Harmohan Dhawan, for the Chandigarh seat.

The party has not announced the names for the Kurukshetra seat, which was represented by Mrs Kailasho Saini, in the outgoing Lok Sabha and for the Karnal seat.

Those renominated are Mr Ajay Singh, son of Mr Om Prakash Chautala, from Bhiwani, Dr Sushil Indora from Sirsa and Mr Surender Singh Barwala for the Hisar seat.

The party has dumped its sitting MP from the crucial Rohtak seat, Capt Inder Singh and nominated the incumbent Vice-Chancellor of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Maj-Gen Bhim Singh Suhag (retd).

For the Faridabad seat the party has nominated the Minister for Fishery and Animal Husbandry, Haryana, Mohammad Illyas and its sitting MLA from Sadhora for the Ambala Lok Sabha seat.

The party has decided to field a fresh face in Swami Dharamdev for the Mahendergarh seat. Swami Dharamdev is the head of Hari Mandir Ashram here and is from the Punjabi community.

Mrs Krishna Malik, wife of the Director-General of Police, Haryana, Mr Mahender Singh Malik has been chosen for the Sonepat seat.

Announcing the names the Chief Minister and the INLD supremo, Mr Om Prakash Chautala said his party would field candidates for all the 10 seats. With regard to Kurukshetra and Karnal, he said the names of the nominees would be announced shortly.

There are indications that Mrs Kailasho Saini will be denied ticket from Kurukshetra. The Minister for Transport, Mr Ashok Arora, is the front-runner for the ticket.

Mr Chautala came down heavily on the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, saying he was “overambitious” to become the Prime Minister. It was on account of his ambition that the NDA has shrunk as 13 of its allies have quit. The BJP will have to pay dearly in the impending parliamentary elections on account of 13 of the regional parties gradually parting ways with it, he added.

However, he praised Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee saying he was a nice person but was in a wrong party. He said he still preferred Mr Vajpayee and the INLD would keep its options open with regard to the post-poll scenario.

To rub the BJP the wrong way Mr Chautala said the real danger for Mr Vajpayee was from within the BJP.

Launching a frontal attack on the BJP he singled out the case of Jammu and Kashmir to say that the party dumped a nationalist leader like former Chief Minister of that state, Dr Farooq Abdullah to reach an understanding with the present Chief Minister, Mr Mufti Mohammad Sayeed which has resulted in resurgence in terrorism.

He criticised Mr Advani’s on-going “rath yatra” and described it “communal”.

Mr Chautala made it known that his aversion for Mr Advani grew in the wake of his statement at a public meeting at Palwal in Faridabad district in which he had urged people to vote for the Congress if they did not vote for the BJP.