New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party today fielded three national level sportspersons – wrestlers Yogeshwar Dutt and Babita Phogat, and former Indian hockey captain Sandeep Singh – as its candidates in the Haryana assembly elections. The party also announced the candidature of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, many senior ministers and leaders as it released a first list of 78 candidates.
While a number of new faces have made it to the list, the saffron party, which formed its first government in the state in 2014, has repeated 38 MLAs and dropped seven. Polls for the 90-member assembly are due to be held on October 21.
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The decision on the candidates was taken by the Central Election Committee of the BJP which met in New Delhi on Sunday. The meeting was chaired by party president Amit Shah and was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and other members of the panel.
हरियाणा विधानसभा के लिए पार्टी के उम्मीदवारों की पहली लिस्ट जारी।सभी को बहुत-बहुत बधाई एवं शुभकामनाएं आइए “फिर वही जोश जगाते हैं ईमानदार सरकार बनाते हैं” @mlkhattar @subhashbrala@sureshbhattbjp #FirEkBaarImaandarSarkar pic.twitter.com/Mivh158Z5Z
— Haryana BJP (@BJP4Haryana) September 30, 2019
Prior to the final decision, Shah and working president J.P. Nadda, held meetings with several leaders of Haryana.
The party has decided to give Khattar, who represents Karnal, another shot from the constituency. But the star attraction on the list remained the three sportspersons, all of whom recently joined the party.
Freestyle wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, who won bronze at the 2012 Olympics and a gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, will be BJP’s candidate from Baroda. He had joined the party only three days ago along with hockey player Sandeep Singh.
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Singh has been chosen by BJP to contest from Pehowa. One of the best known drag-flickers in the game, Singh used to be the captain of the Indian hockey team and was most recently a judge on MTV Roadies.
Babita Phogat, who joined the BJP only in August this year, and was a bronze medal winner at World Wrestling Championships in 2012 and gold medal winner in 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, will be the party’s face from Dadri.
By fielding the three sportspersons who had no previous experience in politics, BJP has shown that it is willing to experiment with new well-known faces as they have often yielded it rich dividends. In the Lok Sabha elections too, its candidate from East Delhi – cricketer Gautam Gambhir – had managed to trounce popular Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi Marlena.
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Like Khattar, BJP has also decided to repeat several of its other senior leaders from their constituencies. State unit president Subhash Barala will once again get to contest from Tohana, while ministers Captain Abhimanyu and and Om Prakash Dhankar have been fielded from Narnod and Badli respectively.
The party, which had earlier decided not to give tickets to the family members of sitting MPs or ministers, has also given a ticket to Prem Lata, wife of former Union minister Birender Singh, from Uchana Kalan. She had won the seat in 2014.