Haryana polls: BJP drops 2 ministers, 5 MLAs as it releases 2nd list

The ruling BJP on Tuesday declared its second list of candidates for the Haryana Assembly election, dropping seven sitting MLAs including two ministers. The saffron party has pitted Captain Yogesh Bairagi against Congress candidate Vinesh Phogat from the Julana assembly segment.

Two ministers in Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s government—Banwari Lal (Bawal) and Seema Trikha (Badkhal)—have been dropped. They have been replaced by Krishna Kumar (Bawal) and Dhanesh Adlakha (Badkhal).

Five MLAs, who have been dropped included BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli (Rai), Nirmal Rani (Ganaur), Praveen Dagar (Hathin), Jagdish Nayar (Hodal) and Satya Prakash Jrawta (Pataudi). While senior BJP leader Krishna Gahlawat will replace Badoli, who had already expressed his desire to opt out of the contest for focus on poll campaign, Devender Kaushik will be the party candidate from Ganaur, Bimla Chaudhary from Pataudli, Manoj Rawat from Hathin and Harinder Singh Ramrattan from Hodal.

Apparently, due to lack of consensus, the BJP has put allocation of tickets from three seats—Mahendragarh, Sirsa and Faridabad (NIT) on hold.

The party has also fielded two Muslims—Naseem Ahmed (Nuh) and Aizaz Ahmed (Punhana). Haryana minister Sanjay Singh, who was earlier dropped from his assembly segment of Sohna, has been fielded from Nuh.

Meanwhile, BJP rebel Jai Bhagwan Sharma will be the new candidate from Pehowa after the party’s official candidate—Kawaljeet Singh Ajrana—opted out of the race due to protest against his candidature.

Voting on 90 assembly seats in Haryana will be held on October 5 and counting of votes will be undertaken on October 8.