Haryana Elections 2014: Jan Chetna Party releases list of 19 candidates

With a day left for filing of nominations, former union minister Venod Sharma's newly floated Haryana Jan Chetna Party on Friday announced the names of 19 candidates to fight the upcoming electoral battle in the state. Sharma, who made an unsuccessful bid to join BJP and later to forge an alliance with Mayawati's BSP and Gopal Kanda's Haryana Lokhit Party, declared the names of 19 contestants from his party at a press conference here.

Sharma's Jan Chetna Party is contesting the Haryana assembly polls in alliance with Kuldeep Bishnoi's Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC-BL). Under the poll agreement between the two political outfits, Sharma's party will contest 25 seats whereas Bishnoi has fielded his candidates on 65 seats out of the total 90 assembly constituencies in poll bound Haryana. Sharma said that he would declare the names of remaining six candidates by this evening.

On Thursday, Bishnoi had declared the list of 58 candidates. Sharma, whose son Manu is facing life term in Jessica Lal murder case, will himself contest from Ambala city. He has fielded his wife Shakti Rani from Kalka assembly seat. Before floating the Jan Chetna Party, Sharma was associated with Congress for four decades and once was considered man friday of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Among the 19 candidates also figure a former Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) member Vinay Sharma, who is daughter-in-law of Haryana's first Chief Minister Bhagat Dyal Sharma. She is contesting from Yamunanagar seat. Asserting that he had made attempts to give representation to all sections of society while allocating party tickets, Sharma said that the only criteria in selection of party contestants is the winnability factor.