Chandigarh. The BJP declared candidates for the remaining four Lok Sabha seats in the state on Sunday evening. Ranjit Chautala, the state cabinet minister from Hisar and independent MP from Rania and son of Devi Lal, has been named his candidate. Former Union minister Chaudhary became MP from Hisar in 2019 on a BJP basis. Birendra Singh’s son joined the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections fearing that his ticket would be shortened. After that, many leaders were in the race for the ticket, including Kuldeep Bishnoi, former MP and son of former Prime Minister Bhajan Lal, who switched from Congress to BJP, but Kuldeep remained confident about the ticket. On the night of March 24, the BJP suddenly announced that Cabinet Minister Ch. surprised everyone by giving a ticket to Ranjit Chautala. After this, Bhavya Bishnoi, MLA son of Kuldeep Bishnoi, who is considered a strong contender on the ticket, wrote on social media platform X that your popularity in politics often becomes your biggest weakness. This was seen as resentment over Ranjit Chautala being made the candidate. Before the situation could worsen, Kuldeep not only got the job removed but also conveyed the message to the workers that life was very long and there was no reason for the workers to be dejected.
Candidates have already been announced for six seats
The BJP had finalized the names of its second list candidates for six out of 10 seats in the state. Former chief minister Manohar Lal from Karnal, Rao Inderjit Singh from Gurugram, Krishnapal Gurjar from Faridabad, Dharmbir Singh from Bhiwani Mahendragarh, Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa and Banto Katari from Ambala were named among the candidates. The list announced on March 24 included Ranjit Chautala from Hisar, entrepreneur Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra, Mohan Lal Badoli from Sonipat and Dr. Arvind Sharma from Rohtak appointed as candidates.
6 out of 10 new faces
The BJP, which won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2019, has announced all its candidates for 2024. Four out of ten old faces were given another chance, while six new faces were used. Rao Inderjit Singh from Gurugram, Krishnapal Gurjar from Faridabad, Dr. Arvindra Sharma from Rohtak and Dharmbir Singh from Bhiwani Mahendragarh were contested again. Hisar to Ch Ranjit Chautala, MLA from Sonipat Mohan Lal Barauli, Banto Kataria from Ambala and Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra have been declared candidates. Naib Saini, who became MP from Kurukshetra in 2019, has become the chief minister of the state. Hisar MP Brijendra left the BJP and joined the Congress and Ambala MP Ratnlal Kataria passed away. Sonipat MP Ramesh Kaushik drowned with an alleged obscene CD that went viral on social media just before the elections. Former Congress president Ashok Tanwar was named candidate in place of MP Sunita Duggal from Sirsa and former chief minister Manohar Lal was named candidate in place of Sanjay Bhatia from Karnal.
There was also disappointment with the cabinet expansion
After Naib Saini was appointed chief minister in place of Manohar Lal, there were talks of including Bhavya Bishnoi in the cabinet. Due to this, the followers of Kuldeep and Bhavya had reached Chandigarh but after Bhavya failed to get a place in Naib’s Saini, the followers had to return disappointed.
There was hope from Rajasthan too
Kuldeep Bishnoi was expected to get a ticket from Hisar seat in Haryana as well as every Bishnoi-dominated seat in Rajasthan. Kuldeep’s supporters believed that if for some reason he did not get the ticket from Hisar, he could definitely get it from Rajasthan. Kuldeep Bishnoi had also met key leaders in Delhi to contest the Lok Sabha elections. But currently, Kuldeep was disappointed with both the pitches.
