Battle lines drawn for Haryana assembly polls as political parties declare most of their candidates

New Delhi [India], September 12 (ANI): Battle lines are drawn in Haryana for the assembly polls with a day left for close of nomination and Congress and AAP declaring more candidates on Wednesday. BJP had declared another list on Tuesday.

The Congress released its third list of 40 candidates for the Haryana assembly election on Wednesday giving ticket to children or relatives of some of its senior leaders. The party has fielded Aditya Surjewala, son of party MP Randeep Surjewala, from the family stronghold of Kaithal.

The Congress list of 40 candidates includes former deputy chief minister Chander Mohan from Panchkula, Nirmal Singh from Ambala City, Ram Niwas Rara from Hisar and Pradeep Narwal from Bawani Khera. Hisar MP Jai Prakash’s son, Vikas, has been nominated from Kalayat. Late Wednesday night, Congress declared another list of five candidates including those from Ambala Cantt and Tigaon. The party has declared most of its candidates for the 90-member assembly.

The Aam Aadmi Party, which released its fourth and fifth list of candidates on Wednesday, has also announced its star campaigners, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his wife Sunita Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

The star campaigners list also includes the names of key party leaders: Delhi Ministers Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia.

Earlier in the day, AAP released its fourth list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections.

AAP has fielded Raj Kaur Gill from Ambala Cantonment, Lalit Tyagi from Yamunanagar, Joga Singh from Ladwa, Satbir Goyat from Kithal, Sunil Bindal from Karnal, and Sukhbir Malik from Painpat Rural, among others.

Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia participated in the nomination rally of the party’s state vice president and candidate from Kalayat seat, Anurag Dhanda and exuded confidence in the party’s victory in the upcoming elections.

“I have come for the nomination filing of Anurag Dhanda. He has been my friend, a journalist and a senior leader of Haryana AAP. People are upset with the 10-year rule of BJP in Haryana and they want to free Haryana from the BJP. AAP will form the government here and work will be done on the guarantee of Arvind Kejriwal,” Sisodia said.

“Our main fight is with corruption, with anti-school politics, with anti-hospital politics, with politics that took away job opportunities,” he added.

Former wrestler and Congress candidate from Julana Assembly constituency Vinesh Phogat filed her nomination papers on Wednesday. She filed her nomination in the presence of Congress MP Deepender Hooda and other state leaders of the party.

She expressed her gratitude to the people of the constituency for their love and emphasised the party’s commitment to work for the welfare of every section.

“It is a matter of good fortune for me that I am entering politics. We are working hard for the welfare of every section. I am grateful for the love the people of Jualana are giving me,” Phogat said while speaking to reporters after filing her nomination.

Phogat joined the Congress party on September 6 along with Olympic wrestler Bajrang Punia, providing a big boost to the party in the run-up to the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections.

Phogat is pitted against BJP candidate Captain Yogesh Bairagi. He also filed his nomination earlier in the day.

Congress MP Deepender Hooda exuded confidence that the Congress would form the government in Haryana.

There was seat-sharing talks betwen AAP and Congress but they failed. The last date for filing nominations is September 12.

Earlier on Tuesday, with the deadline for filing nominations for the Haryana Assembly polls nearing, BJP leaders from the state, Sunil Rao and Satish Yadav, joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

They joined AAP in the presence of AAP Haryana chief Sushil Gupta and the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh conveyed that former BJP leader Sunil Rao, who joined AAP, is a brother-in-law of film actor Rajkumar Rao.

He emphasised that AAP will apply five guarantees of Arvind Kejriwal that include free education and free medical treatment, employment to youth in Haryana if the party comes to power.

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday released its second list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections.

With this, the party has now declared the names of 88 candidates for the 90-member assembly, with Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini contesting from Ladwa constituency.

The ruling BJP in Haryana, in its second list of 21 candidates for the state assembly elections, dropped seven sitting MLAs, including two ministers and state party president Mohan Lal Badoli.

The two ministers who were denied tickets are School Education Minister and Badkhal MLA Seema Trikha, who has been replaced with Dhanesh Adlakha, and Health Minister and Bawal MLA Banwari Lal, who has been replaced with Krishna Kumar.

Prime Minister Narenda Modi is expected to visit Haryana on September 14 to boost the BJP’s campaign. The presence of JJP, INLD and AAP besides BJP and Congress is expected to make the election multi-cornered on many seats.

Voting for the 90-member legislative assembly in Haryana will be held on October 5. Votes will be counted on October 8 along with that in Jammu and Kashmir.