BJP chief minister aspirants in Haryana upset with party fielding Sushma Swaraj's sister

The BJP is widely being touted as the favourite to form the next government in Haryana in the upcoming assembly elections. And already, there is a clamour among possible chief minister aspirants to get in the good books of the central leadership. In the midst of this, the BJP's nomination of Sushma Swaraj's sister, Vandana Sharma, has made top leaders of the state jittery. 

The saffron unit has already declared candidates for all the 90 seats in the state. Obviously there are issues with ticket distribution, especially with the recent influx of leaders from other parties. Each senior leader wanted to get tickets for their men, however, only some of them succeeded. But what has unnerved many in the BJP is the nomination of politically inexperienced Vandana Sharma from Safidon, Haryana. According to a report in The Tribune, many believe Vandana is a proxy candidate for Sushma Swaraj, who may be called up to take up the mantle of chief minister if the need arrives. In that case, Vandana could just resign and Sushma could get re-elected from that seat. At present, BJP doesn't have one central face to lead the whole party in Haryana. So it may look for a top leader from the Centre if the need arises. 

Barring one, all BJP MPs in Haryana had sought tickets for their relatives, but were denied this after BJP president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi categorically announced that relatives of elected leaders would not be given tickets. However, this rule seems to have been bent for Sushma Swaraj. There are several leaders who believe they are the best person for the top job, including people like BJP president Ram Bilas Sharma, Manohar Lal Khattar, Capt Abhimanyu, Anil Vij, Rao Inderjit Singh and Birender Singh among others. Will this intense infighting and squabbling before the elections cost the party dearly? One will only know on October 19.