The decision was taken at a core group meeting of BJP’s central election committee on Sunday which continued late into the night.
After much pondering, the BJP has chosen to field some top-class sports icons for the upcoming Haryana assembly elections to corner the opposition, which is already in a spot of bother with widespread dissension.
Former India hockey captain Sandeep Singh will fight from Pehowa in Punjabi-dominated Kurukshetra; 2012 Olympic bronze medallist and Commonwealth Games gold medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt from Baroda seat, and three-time Commonwealth gold and silver medallist wrestler Babita Phogat from Dadri.
The decision was taken at a core group meeting of BJP’s central election committee on Sunday which continued late into the night.
Party top brass including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president and union home minister Amit Shah were at the meet.
Also present were working president J P Nadda, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and state party chief Subhash Barala and state election in-charge Narendra Singh Tomar.
The infusion of the young sports icons is expected to give the BJP an edge over rival parties Congress and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana, a state where sports, especially wrestling, is like a religion.
In The Ring For BJP
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- 2012 Olympic bronze medal-winning wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt (Baroda); C’wealth gold and silver medallist wrestler Babita Phogat (Dadri); fromer hockey captain Sandeep Singh (Pehowa)
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Keeping a balance of experience and youth, the BJP has repeated 38 legislators in the list of 78 candidates and dropped seven for the polls to the 90-member assembly.
The party has decided to field CM Khattar once again from Karnal, the seat he had won in 2014. Subhash Barala will contest from Tohana, Captain Abhimanyu from Narnod and Om Prakash Dhankar from Badli, said BJP national general secretary Arun Singh.
Former union minister and Jat leader Birender Singh’s wife will contest from Uchana Kalan, a seat she had won in 2014.
The list of 78 candidates includes nine women and two Muslims – Zakir Hussain and Naseem Ahmad – from Muslim strongholds of Nuh and Ferozepur Jhirka, respectively.
Though in the driving seat because of PM Modi’s popularity, superior cadre strength, nationalist issues like abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and call to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the BJP is expected to face some tough fights in certain seats because of aspiring candidates such as Rao Narbir Singh from Badshahpur and Vipul Goyal from Faridabad, who have not been given tickets.
On the other hand, the Congress, the main rival party in Haryana which somehow managed to arrest feud in the state leadership by putting Kumari Selja at the helm and agreeing to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hudda’s demands, is yet to come out with its first list of candidates.
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