In Haryana, turncoat trouble for BJP, Congress

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 2

Ahead of the Haryana Assembly elections, party hoppers have put not only the BJP and the Congress in a tight spot, but also made the ticket aspirants jittery.

‘Outsiders’ hardly get cadre support

• During the LS poll, there was dissent among the BJP cadre fielding of turncoats on three seats
• Naveen Jindal contested from Kuruskhetra, Ranjit Singh Hisar and Ashok Tanwar Sirsa
• Jindal won, but the other two lost due to resentment among cadre over fielding ‘outsiders’

In the poll season, it is common to see leaders quitting one party to join the other. With both the main parties yet to name their candidates, senior leaders fear turncoats may ruin their chance of getting the nomination.

In fact, the entry of the turncoats seems to have delayed the first list of candidates of both parties, which have already held multiple meetings to finalise ticket allocation.

Talking to The Tribune, a BJP ticket aspirant said he feared that the entry of “outsiders” on the eve of the polls would adversely affect the chances of senior party leaders who had worked hard for decades to strengthen the party. In the last two days alone, four former JJP MLAs — Ram Kumar Gautam (Narnaund), Devinder Singh Babli (Tohana), Anoop Dhanak (Uklana) and Jogi Ram Sihag (Barwala) — and Ambala Mayor Shakti Rani Sharma have joined the BJP, apparently in the hope of getting the party ticket.

Last month, two former JJP MLAs — Ishwar Singh (Guhla) and Ram Karan Kala (Shahabad) — switched sides to the Congress. Earlier, JJP president Nishan Singh had joined the Congress, while three Independent MLAs — Sombir Sangwan (Dadri), Randhir Gollen (Pundri) and Dharampal Gonder (Nilokheri) — withdrew support to the BJP government and backed the Congress during the Lok Sabha elections.

Some of these leaders have defeated the BJP bigwigs in the previous Assembly elections. For instance, the then state BJP chief Subhash Barala was defeated by Babli in Tohana and Gautam defeated former finance minister Capt Abhimanyu in Narnaund.

Allaying fears of party leaders, BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli claimed joining of senior leaders from other parties was an indication that the BJP was set to form the government for the third consecutive time. “The leaders reposing faith in the BJP ideology will be given due respect,” he said, but added they had joined the party without any pre-condition.

Party sources said merit would be the sole criteria for the selection of candidates. The party took into account several factors, including caste and stature of the applicant. All aspirants would get a level-playing field in the ticket-selection process, the sources said.

During the recent Lok Sabha elections, there was dissent among the BJP cadre over the decision of the party high command to field turncoats on three seats — Naveen Jindal (Kuruskhetra), Ranjit Singh (Hisar) and Ashok Tanwar (Sirsa). Only Jindal won the election, while the other two lost in the wake of resentment among a section of party workers over fielding of “outsiders”.