M A I N   N E W S

Sushma blocks Venod Sharma’s entry into HJC
Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 6
The BJP has apparently blocked Venod Sharma’s joining the Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress. The saffron party, it is learnt, has threatened to walk out of the pre-poll alliance with Bishnoi.

Ambala MLA Sharma, who submitted his resignation to the Congress president yesterday, was left high and dry after Kuldeep Bishnoi succumbed to the threat and called off his press conference to announce Sharma’s induction into his party.

Senior BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said she spoke to Bishnoi and expressed her displeasure over making Sharma a part of his team.

Swaraj hails from Ambala, the constituency Sharma represents in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. “I am strongly opposed to this (Venod Sharma joining the HJC). I have conveyed my views to Kuldeep Bishnoi,” she tweeted after calling Bishnoi.

Venod Sharma is expected to spell out his future course of action at the Jan Chetna Mahayagya due on March 9 at Kurukshetra to mark the culmination of his four-month awareness yatra.

The BJP’s opposition to Sharma’s induction into the HJC came a day after he resigned from the Congress. There were indications that he would contest the Karnal parliamentary constituency on the HJC ticket.

Bishnoi’s mother Jasma Devi and brother Chander Mohan have also threatened to disassociate from the HJC if Sharma was made its member.

Chander Mohan is upset with Sharma for the latter’s role in getting him sacked as the Deputy CM after he converted to Islam and married Fiza. Jasma Devi is against Sharma because he played a major role in promoting Hooda’s name for the CM’s post against her husband and former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal in 2005.