The Congress released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections Friday. The list mentions 31 candidates, including Olympic wrestler Vinesh Phogat and former chief minister Bhupinder Hooda. While Phogat – who officially joined the party just hours ago – will contest from Julana, Hooda has been fielded from Garhi Sampla. Kuldeep Vats will fight from Badli while Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan has been fielded from Hodal. From Jhajjar, the party has fielded Geeta Bhukkal while from Israna, the party has named Balbir Singh. The party has repeated sitting MLA from Sonipat Surender Panwar. In July ED had arrested Panwar in a money laundering case revolving around an illegal mining case.
Congress' candidates list comes on a day when sources within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) told Times Now that the party was considering going solo in the state Assembly elections after its seat-sharing talks with the Congress hit a roadblock, with the Congress refusing to give any more than seven seats to the party.
Both Haryana Congress Incharge Deepak Babaria and AAP leader Raghav Chadha have, however, maintained that the alliance is still under discussion.
"Talks are going on. We are hopeful that an alliance will form in favour of Haryana and the country. Every possible effort is being made," the AAP MP said.
This comes two days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released the first candidates list for the polls. The first list has 67 names, including Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. He will be contesting from the Ladwa constituency, while the BJP has fielded former minister Anil Vij from the Ambala Cantonment seat.
Former Haryana BJP president Om Prakash Dhankar has been fielded from Badli. Meanwhile, Devender Singh Babli, Sanjay Kablana and Shruti Choudhry, who joined the BJP recently, will contest from the Tohana, Beri and Tosham seats, respectively.
Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh's daughter Arti Singh Rao will contest from Ateli. The names of Capt Abhimanyu, Bhavya Bishnoi, the son of Kuldeep Bishnoi, and former MP Sunita Duggal are also on the list.
The BJP is contesting the Haryana polls alone.
The party has dropped prominent names from the list, including some MLAs. The BJP also not given ticket to MP Naveen Jindal's mother, Savitri Jindal. She is expected to get ticket from Hisar.
On September 2, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national President JP Nadda, BJP Haryana Election incharge Dharmendra Pradhan, election co-incharge Biplab Dev, State incharge Satish Punia, State Co-incharge Surender Nagar and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar met and held talks regarding the candidates.
The Assembly Elections in Haryana are scheduled to take place on October 5. The votes will be counted on October 8. On August 31, the Election Commission of India (ECI) revised the polling day for Haryana Assembly polls from October 1 to October 5, this year, as well as moved the counting of votes for both Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana assemblies from October 4 to October 8.
(With inputs from agencies)