Congress fields 2 sitting MLAs including an independent for Karnal’s Assandh, Nilokheri seats

The Congress party has announced two candidates out of five seats in Karnal districts for the upcoming Haryana assembly election, fielding two sitting MLAs –one from the party and another an independent.

The party has reposed its faith on its sitting MLA Shamsher Singh Gogi from the same seat Assandh, while opting to field independent MLA Dharampal Gonder from Nilokheri as its candidate. Both MLAs had won in the 2019 election.

A senior Congress leader Gogi first contested the Assandh seat in 2019 and secured a victory with 32,114 votes, accounting for 20.94 per cent of the total votes. He won by a narrow margin of 1,703 votes, defeating BSP candidate Narender Singh, who got 30,411 votes. During his tenure, Gogi has been an active voice in raising issues related to his constituency in the Haryana assembly.

It is Gonder’s third election. He was formerly associated with the BJP and had contested his first election on in 2009. Gonder had quit the party and contested as an independent candidate in 2019. He won the seat with a margin of 2,222 votes by defeating BJP candidate and former MLA Bhagwandas Kabirpathi. He got 42,979 votes, while Kabirpanthi received 40,757 votes. Gonder had extended support to the BJP-JJP government after his victory, and later to Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

Both the leaders expressed gratitude to the party leadership for their candidatures.

“I am thankful to the party leadership for my candidature. With the support of the party workers, we will win the Assandh seat,” said Gogi, who is a prominent Jat Sikh face of the region.

Gonder said, “The party has shown faith in me, for which I am thankful to the party leadership.”