Congress names 32 candidates for Haryana, Vinesh Phogat to contest from Julana
The Congress today released a list of 32 candidates for the October 5 Haryana Assembly elections, fielding all 28 MLAs. Former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda will contest the election from his bastion Garhi Sampla-Kiloi, which he has represented five times in the past. State Congress president Udai Bhan has been given the ticket from Hodal (SC) though he had lost the 2019 Assembly election.
Wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who joined the Congress today, has been fielded from the Julana constituency. Wrestler Bajrang Punia, who joined the party along with Vinesh, has been named the working chairman of the All India Kisan Congress. Both Vinesh and Punia were at the forefront of women wrestlers’ protest against alleged sexual harassment by former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Congress’ Mewa Singh will face CM Nayab Singh Saini from Ladwa. He had won the seat in 2019 by a margin of 12,637 votes, defeating BJP’s Pawan Saini. Hooda’s stamp is clearly visible in the first list of the Congress. Deputy CLP leader Aftab Ahmed has been given the ticket from Nuh while the party’s Chief Whip Bharat Bhushan Batra has been retained from Rohtak.
Sitting MLAs Kuldeep Vats and Rao Dan Singh have been given the ticket from Badli and Mahendragarh, respectively.
Among the turncoats, Ram Karan Kala has been fielded from Shahbad (SC). He had won the seat on the Jannayak Janta Party ticket in 2019 and had recently joined the Congress. Independent MLA from Nilokheri (SC) Dharam Pal Gonder, who had also recently joined the party, has been rewarded too.
Surprisingly, the party has retained Sonepat MLA Surender Panwar and Samalkha MLA Dharam Singh Chokker. Both are facing investigation by the Enforcement Directorate.
Panwar is still in jail in a case connected with illegal mining. Earlier, his daughter-in-law was in contention for the seat. In 2019, Panwar had defeated then BJP minister Kavita Jain by a margin of close to 33,000 votes.
Chokker is facing an investigation as his construction firm had allegedly collected about Rs 363 crore from 1,497 home buyers under the affordable housing scheme in Sector 68, Gurugram. However, the entity failed to deliver the project. He had defeated his nearest rival Shashi Kant Kaushik of the BJP by 14,942 votes in 2019.
The Congress had won 31 seats in 2019. Later, Kuldeep Bishnoi and Kiran Choudhry joined the BJP while Varun Chaudhary was elected to the Lok Sabha.
Regarding a tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress state in-charge Deepak Babaria said talks were still going on. AAP MP Raghav Chadha also confirmed it.
9 Jats, 9 SCs on list
Of the 32 candidates named on Friday, nine are Jats, one Jat Sikh, three Muslims, seven from Backward Classes, one Punjabi, two Brahmins and nine from the Scheduled Caste community.
