New Delhi:

The BJP on Thursday announced a star-studded list of 40 campaigners for the October 5 Assembly elections in Haryana, including heavyweights like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President J.P. Nadda, and a bevy of senior leaders comprising Union Ministers, MPs, Chief Ministers and former CMs.

The BJP announced its list of 90 candidates for the Haryana polls in three parts, the last of which was issued on Wednesday night with Thursday being the last date for submission of nominations.

The campaigners’ list announced on Thursday includes the names of Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Lal Khattar (former Haryana Chief Minister), Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Piyush Goyal, among others.

The Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states who have been named in the list of campaigners are Nayab Singh Saini (Haryana), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Mohan Yadav (Madhya Pradesh), Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), Bhajan Lal Sharma (Rajasthan), and Pushkar Singh Dhami (Uttarakhand).

The list also includes the names of notable BJP leaders like Anurag Singh Thakur (Lok Sabha MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh), Hema Malini (LS MP from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh), Biplab Kumar Deb (Rajya Sabha MP and former Tripura CM), and Rao Inderjit Singh (Gurgaon MP and Union MoS), among other seasoned leaders.

An interesting name spotted in the list is that of wrestler-turned-politician Babita Phogat — the cousin sister of Vinesh Phogat who is contesting the Haryana Assembly polls on a Congress ticket from Julana.

Elections to the 90-member Haryana Assembly will be held on October 5. The ballots will be counted on October 8.

Here is the complete list of BJP campaigners for the Haryana polls:

1. Narendra Modi

2. J.P. Nadda

3. Rajnath Singh

4. Amit Shah

5. Nitin Gadkari

6. Nayab Singh Saini

7. Mohan Lal Badoli

8. Manohar Lal Khattar

9. Shivraj Singh Chouhan

10. Dharmendra Pradhan

11. Yogi Adityanath

12. Satish Poonia

13. Biplab Kumar Deb

14. Surendra Singh Nagar

15. Piyush Goyal

16. Arjun Ram Meghwal

17. Hardeep Singh Puri

18. Sudha Yadav

19. Bhajan Lal Sharma

20. Mohan Yadav

21. Pushkar Singh Dhami

22. Himanta Biswa Sarma

23. Rao Inderjit Singh

24. Krishan Pal Gurjar

25. Vasundhara Raje Scindia

26. Smriti Z. Irani

27. Jairam Thakur

28. Ravneet Singh Bittu

29. Anurag Thakur

30. Diya Kumari

31. Hema Malini

32. Kiran Choudhry

33. Naveen Jindal

34. Dharambir Singh

35. Ashok Tanwar

36. Manoj Tiwari

37. Sanjeev Balyan

38. Kuldeep Bishnoi

39. Ram Chander Jangra

40. Babita Phogat
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chandigarh:

The ruling BJP late Wednesday released its third and final list of candidates for the Haryana polls as it denied ticket to its senior leader Ram Bilas Sharma from Mahendragarh.

According to the party list, BJP has fielded Kanwar Singh Yadav from Mahendragarh, even as Sharma, sensing that the party may deny him a ticket, filed his nomination papers from the constituency earlier in the day.

From Sirsa, the party has fielded Rohtash Jangra while from Faridabad NIT, the BJP has named Satish Fagna as its candidate.

Sirsa is currently represented by BJP’s ally Gopal Kanda, who heads the Haryana Lokhit Party.

With this, the BJP has named candidates for all the 90 assembly seats.

Mr Sharma is a prominent Brahmin face of the party, who was also a Minister in the government headed by M L Khattar between 2014 and 2019. However, Mr Sharma lost the 2019 Assembly polls. He has also served as the BJP’s Haryana unit president.

The BJP has denied tickets to a few of its sitting MLAs, including a couple of ministers.

Amid deepening schisms within the ruling BJP in Haryana over poll ticket distribution, party leader Karan Dev Kamboj on Wednesday indicated that the rebellion could have been prevented if Chief Minister Nayab Saini had a “say” in the allocation process.

The BJP on Tuesday released its second list of candidates for the polls, denying tickets to two ministers and replacing its nominee for the Pehowa seat.

In its first list of candidates announced on September 4, the BJP nominated Kamaljeet Singh Ajrana for the Pehowa seat but replaced him with Jai Bhagwan Sharma in the second list.

Incumbent MLA of Pehowa and former minister Sandeep Singh has been denied re-nomination.

The BJP also denied a ticket to Minister Banwari Lal, who represented Bawal in the outgoing Assembly, and fielded Krishna Kumar in his place.

School Education Minister Seema Trikha, the incumbent MLA of Badhkal, too was denied re-nomination. Dhanesh Adlakha has been nominated for the seat.

The BJP released its first list of 67 candidates for the 90-member Assembly on September 4, fielding Haryana chief minister Saini from the Ladwa seat and rewarding several recent entrants to the party with poll tickets.

Shruti Choudhry, the grand-daughter of former chief minister Bansi Lal, who joined the ruling party recently, is contesting from the Tosham.

After the BJP announced its first list of 67 candidates, it faced rebellion within its ranks with Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala and MLA Lakshman Dass Napa quitting the party after being denied a ticket.

A few other aspirants who were also denied tickets had raised a banner of revolt. The BJP is aiming for a hattrick in the Haryana Assembly polls to be held on October 5 but faces a tough challenge from a resurgent Congress which is looking to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor.

Mr  Saini is the BJP’s chief ministerial face for the assembly polls. The counting of votes will take place on October 8. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chandigarh:

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday announced 40-star campaigners for Haryana Assembly Elections.

The list includes the names of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Delhi Ministers Atishi, and Saurabh Bharadwaj, and AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia.

Meanwhile, AAP on Wednesday also released its fourth list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections. AAP has so far declared 61 candidates for the 90-member assembly.

Among the candidates announced on Wednesday are 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.

The other names in the list include Saroj Bala Rathi from Ganaur, Devender Gautam from Sonipat, Shiv Kumar Rangeela from Gohana, Sandeep Malik from Baroda, Kavita Dalal from Julana, Nisha Deshwal from Safidon, Sukhwinder Singh Gill from Tohana, Jasdev Nikka from Kalanwali, Sham Mehta from Sirsa, Narender Uklana from Uklana, Rajiv Pali from Narnaund, Rajender Sorkhi from Hansi.

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,” Mr 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.

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

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Charkhi Dadri (Haryana):

Wrestler-turned-politician Babita Phogat has for the first time responded to her cousin Vinesh Phogat’s decision to join Congress, days ahead of the October 5 Assembly elections in Haryana.

Soon after her induction into the party on September 6, the Congress fielded Vinesh Phogat (30) from the Julana Assembly segment for the upcoming elections in Haryana.

Stating that Vinesh’s decision is her own, and everyone has their own perspectives and ideologies, Babita on Tuesday emphasised that the political arena is open to everyone, and anyone can participate in politics.

Earlier, Babita’s father and veteran wrestling coach Mahavir Phogat had suggested that Vinesh should participate in the 2028 Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles.

“My papa is Vinesh’s mentor. Vinesh should have heeded her mentor’s advice. A mentor always aims to guide their disciples correctly by providing good training. A mentor never wants their disciples to stray from their path. If a disciple deviates, it is the mentor’s duty to set them back on the right path,” said Babita, who clinched the gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in the 55 kg category.

She also said that Vinesh Phogat made a ‘hasty’ decision as she had a good chance of winning a gold medal in the 2028 Olympics.

Regarding her own ticket for the upcoming Assembly elections, Babita Phogat said, “I have no regret about not receiving a ticket. I work for the BJP’s lotus symbol. I believe that whoever gets the lotus symbol, we will work with them, put in efforts, and make sure the lotus blooms. Looking at the current enthusiasm, I can confidently say that we will win the Charkhi Dadri Assembly seat.”

Stating that the BJP has carefully chosen Sunil Sangwan as its candidate from Charkhi Dadri, Babita said, “I stand by the party’s decision. The BJP will form the government in Haryana for the third time. Under the leadership of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, the government will be formed with a clear majority.”

On veteran Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, she said, “He has succeeded in creating rifts within the Phogat family. The public will teach him a lesson; he is merely engaging in politics. Divide and rule has always been Congress’ policy. Congress leaders have historically engaged in dividing both the nation and families. In contrast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi works to unite families and the country. The BJP practises ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’.”
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)