Chandigarh: The ruling BJP in Haryana on Tuesday named 21 more candidates in its second list, dropping two ministers and five sitting legislators, for the upcoming October 5 assembly election in the state. Notably, the saffron party has fielded Capt Yogest Bairagi against the star wrestler and Congress candidate Vinesh Phogat from the Julana assembly seat.
The two ministers dropped this time are Banwari Lal from Bawal seat and Seema Trikha from Badkhal who are replaced by Krishna Kumar and Dhanesh Adlakha, respectively. The five legislators denied ticket include BJP state president Mohan Lal Badoli from Rai, though, he had himself sought not to contest this time; others are Nirmal Rani from Ganaur seat, Praveen Dagar, Hathin, Jagdish Nayar, Hodal, and Satya Prakash from Pataudi seat.
While Krishna Gahlawat replaced Badoli, Devender Kaushik would contest from Ganaur, Bimla Chaudhary from Pataudi, Manoj Rajput from Hathin and Harinder Singh would contest from Hodal seat, according to the list. The saffron party has also fielded two Muslim candidates – Naseem Ahmed from Ferozepur Jhirka seat and Aizaz Ahmed from Punhana.
Haryana minister Sanjay Singh, who was earlier dropped from his assembly segment of Sohna, has been fielded from Nuh. According to the list, party’s rebel leader Jai Bhagwan Sharma has been given the ticket from Pehowa.
It may be recalled that with the release of the 21 candidates, the BJP has so far named 87 candidates for the total 90-member state assembly. Party sources said that the remaining three seats – Mahendergarh, Sirsa and Faridabad (NIT) – would soon be announced. It may be recalled that the BJP had dropped several sitting MLAs including ministers in its first list of 67 candidates named last week.
