Dronacharya awardee Anup Singh Dahiya INLD nominee from Sonepat

Pradeep Sharma

Chandigarh, April 22

The INLD today named former Indian wrestling team coach and Dronacharya awardee Anup Singh Dahiya as its candidate from the Sonepat Lok Sabha seat.

Abhay Chautala backs Varinder Maratha

Abhay Chautala pledged support for the prominent Rode community leader Varinder Maratha, saying the INLD would support him irrespective of the party he contested elections from. An NCP leader, Maratha is eyeing Karnal Lok Sabha seat from the INDIA bloc, though Congress is also set to name its own candidate from Karnal, from where former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is contesting as the BJP candidate. Chautala has extended support to Maratha in the hope of getting votes of the Rode community in Kurukshetra from where is contesting elections.

While announcing candidates for three Lok Sabha seats, INLD state chief Ram Pal Majra and senior leader Abhay Chautala said Sunil Tewetia, a scion of the erstwhile Ballabhgarh royal family, will be the candidate from Faridabad while Sandeep Lot will be the party nominee from Sirsa.

Sunil Tewetia is a great-grandson of Raja Nahar Singh, the erstwhile ruler of Ballabhgarh. Tewetia is an influential leader in Ballabhgarh, one of the Assembly segments in Faridabad Lok Sabha constituency.

Sandeep Lot comes from a political family as his grandfather Fakir Chand was a two-time MLA. His father also contested the 2009 Assembly elections on Congress ticket from Narwana.

The fielding of Dahiya from Jatland Sonepat is seen a smart move by the party to woo the Jats and the sports fraternity as the wrestling coach enjoyed goodwill among the people having coached several international sports stars, including Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Satyavrat Kadian and Amit Dahiya.

Dahiya, who retired as the SP from the Haryana Police, is also winner of the President’s Police Award. Meanwhile, Majra asserted that the party was ‘withholding’ names for four other parliamentary segments due to ‘pressing political circumstances’.

Sources, however, said the names for the candidates from Karnal, Rohtak, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh and Gurugram were being withheld in anticipation of the Congress list. The candidates for these seats will be declared on April 26, Majra said.

Meawnhile, Santosh Dahiya, president of Mahila Sarv Khap, pledged support for the INLD in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.