Turncoats taste success in Haryana at end of Lok Sabha Elections

Notwithstanding the sharp attack they had to face from the ruling Congress camp, turncoats fielded by BJP tasted success in Haryana.

BJP had fielded its candidates from eight seats, half of whom came from Congress background. Notable among them were Rao Inderjit Singh, who contested from Gurgaon, and Dharambir Singh from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh. Both won from the respective seats they were fielded from.

Ramesh Chander, who quit Congress a few months back, contested from Sonepat on the lotus symbol and won. He had been given the BJP ticket ignoring Pradeep Sangwan, a front-runner from the region. BJP had also fielded R K Saini, a party hopper, from Kurukshetra constituency, from where he won. He was a leader in the now-defunct Haryana Vikas Party, which later merged with Congress. In Karnal, BJP had put up Ashwini Chopra 'Minna', owner of a leading vernacular newspaper, based in Delhi, while it had three candidates from within its own ranks in Ambala (Rattan Lal Kataria), Faridabad (K P Gujjar) and Rohtak (O P Dhankar).

During the election campaigning, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and other Congress leaders had taken potshots at BJP, saying the saffron party did not have candidates to contest the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana and were borrowing from other parties.

Hooda had earlier also taken a dig at BJP, saying it lacked leadership in Haryana.