BJP fields Khattar from Karnal day after replacing him as CM, yet to name candidates for 4 seats

A day after he was replaced by Nayab Singh Saini as Haryana chief minister, Manohar Lal Khattar was named by the BJP as its contender for the Karnal Lok Sabha seat, in its second list of 72 candidates announced Wednesday.

The list contains the names of candidates for six of the ten Lok Sabha seats of Haryana – the other candidates being Banto Kataria from Ambala, Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa, Dharambir Singh from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Rao Inderjit Singh from Gurugram and Krishan Pal Gurjar from Faridabad.

The BJP is yet to name its candidates from Hisar, Rohtak, Sonipat, and Kurukshetra.

The BJP’s sitting MP from Hisar Brijendra Singh had quit the party to join the Congress Sunday, Kurukshetra sitting MP Nayab Singh Saini replaced Khattar as CM Tuesday, while Sonipat MP Ramesh Kaushik has found himself in the centre of a controversy over an alleged objectionable video going viral on social media.

Khattar’s nomination from Karnal has not come as a surprise to anyone as he had himself hinted about it during his interaction with media persons after Saini’s swearing-in.

When media persons asked him about his plans, Khattar said that though it was to be decided by the party’s parliamentary board, he felt that he could be fielded as a candidate for Lok Sabha polls.

Before this, once Saini was elected as BJP’s legislature party leader by the MLAs, BJP’s Karnal MP Sanjay Bhatia was also asked by media personswhether Khattar would replace him as the party’s candidate. In response, Bhatia said what could be better news for him if a person he treats as his “guru” is replacing him.

Sources in the BJP feel Bhatia may now be appointed as state BJP chief, replacing now CM Saini.

After Saini won the floor test in the state assembly Wednesday, Khattar resigned as Karnal MLA, leaving the seat for Saini.

Anti-incumbency, Rahul’s caste census call, OBC maths – why BJP replaced Khattar with Saini in Haryana

Focus on Sirsa, Rohtak

Last year, the BJP’s internal survey had reportedly found that Sirsa and Rohtak were weak seats, and the party could consider changing its candidates for these two seats.

The party had also reportedly taken note of certain “unfavourable” statements made by Rohtak MP Arvind Sharma and Hisar MP Brijendra Singh.

While Brijendra Singh is no longer with the party, the BJP, it is learnt, is thinking of several names for Rohtak, including actor Randeep Hooda – who directed and played the protagonist in the soon-to-be released movie Swatantra Veer Savarkar, based on Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar – party national secretary O.P. Dhankar and even former minister Manish Grover.

When international boxer Saweety Boora and her husband Deepak Hooda joined the BJP last month, she had claimed that the party could consider them for the ticket, but their names didn’t figure in the list of probables prepared by the party, BJP sources told The Print.

Ashok Tanwar’s ticket was seen as a distinct possibility ever since he joined the BJP after quitting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in January this year and started a campaign in Sirsa.

Reportedly, he first met Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal and assured her of his support if the party renominated her.

Ambala sitting MP Rattan Lal Kataria had passed away in May last year. The BJP has nominated his widow Banto Kataria this time.

Krishan Pal Gurjar, BJP MP from Faridabad, and Rao Inderjit Singh, MP from Gurugram, have been ministers in the Modi cabinet since 2019 and their re-nominationswere never in doubt, according to party sources.

The party, according to sources, was also of the view that its candidate for Bhiwani-Mahendragarh will be decided in consultation with Rao Inderjit Singh because of a large number of Yadav voters. Rao Inderjit Singh had earlier described Dharambir Singh as a strong candidate who has worked hard for the constituency.

JJP ups the ante after Brijendra Singh leaves BJP, wants Hisar & Bhiwani-Mahindragarh or will go solo