Congress fields two former MLAs in Karnal, Indri, former AICC secy in Gharaunda
The Congress has fielded two former MLAs — Sumita Singh and Rakesh Kamboj — from the Karnal and Indri Assembly segments, respectively. It has shown faith in former AICC secretary and Rajput face Virender Rathore in the Gharaunda Assembly segment. Earlier, the Congress had re-nominated sitting MLA Shamsher Singh Gogi from Assandh and expressed its faith in Independent MLA Dharampal Gonder from Nilokheri.
Former MLA Sumita Singh has served two consecutive terms from the same seat in 2005 and 2009, but lost in 2014 when she had contested for the Assandh seat. She is contesting against the BJP’s candidate Jagmohan Anand, who previously served as the media coordinator to former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
Sumita Singh expressed confidence that she would win as people of Karnal had witnessed no major change in the past 10 years. “The Congress will form the government in the state,” she added. She took out a roadshow before filing her nomination papers in the city, which saw large gathering.
Rakesh Kamboj has been named as the Congress candidate for the Indri Assembly segment. He won the seat in 2005 and had contested the last Assembly election as an Independent candidate and faced defeat to BJP’s Ram Kumar Kashyap by 7,431 votes. Kamboj is once again up against Kashyap in a bid to reclaim the seat. Kamboj is also confident of his victory.
Kamboj also filed his nomination papers in Indri after holding a meeting with his supporters and party workers. He also took out a massive roadshow. Rathore had previously contested in 2005, 2009 and 2014, but could not win. Despite his past setbacks. He is contesting against the BJP candidate and sitting MLA Harvinder Kalyan, who won the seat for two consecutive times in 2014 and 2019.
“People of Gharaunda want change as they are fed up with the BJP government. It has ignored the area and no major development work has been done here. We will win with the support of the people of Gharaunda,” said Rathore.
Rathore also filed his nomination papers, after ‘havan’ and held a massive roadshow in Gharaunda. Former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda addressed a gathering in Nilokheri before the filing of the nomination papers of party’s candidate Dharampal Gonder.