Congress faces revolt in Bahadurgarh constituency

After the declaration of the first list of its 32 candidates, the Congress has witnessed revolt in the Bahadurgarh Assembly constituency with its local leader Rajesh Joon tendering his resignation from the party.

He also announced that he would contest the poll as an Independent candidate from Bahadurgarh after holding a meeting with his supporters today. The meeting was called to discuss the next course of action after being denied the ticket by the Congress.

Rajesh had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls as an Independent from Bahadurgarh in 2014 and secured 28,242 votes. He also filed his nomination papers again in the Assembly polls held in 2019 but withdrew it in favour of sitting Congress MLA Rajendra Singh Joon.

The Congress has made Rajendra its nominee this time, too, which led to the revolt in the party. He has won the Assembly electionS thrice. In previous polls, he defeated the BJP’s outgoing MLA Naresh Kaushik by a margin of 15,491 votes.

“I have resigned from the post of the delegate and the primary membership of the Congress and decided to jump into the fray as an Independent as my supporters wanted me to do so. They are also disappointed by the disregard the Congress has shown towards me. I have worked for the party with full dedication for the past several years, but it has cheated on me by not giving me the ticket. I have been used and thrown,” said Joon while talking to the media in Bahadurgarh on Saturday.

He also accused sitting MLA Rajendra Joon and the party leadership of betraying him. “The Congress leaders had promised at the time of previous elections to field me this time. Following which, I had withdrawn my nomination papers, but they failed to fulfil their promise forcing me to stand as an Independent. I have launched my poll campaign and will file nomination papers on September 11,” he said.

Rajesh claimed that his supporters had pulled up their socks to ensure the defeat of the Congress nominee in the elections.