BJP Completes Candidate List for Haryana Lok Sabha Elections

In a significant political development on Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its candidates for four Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, marking the completion of its candidate list for all 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state. This announcement came shortly after Naveen Jindal and Ranjit Singh Chautala, two prominent figures, joined the BJP, bringing fresh faces into the party's fold for the upcoming elections.

Naveen Jindal, an industrialist and former Congress Member of Parliament (MP) from Kurukshetra, and Ranjit Singh Chautala, an Independent Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Haryana, were among those named in the BJP's fifth list of nominees. Jindal has previously served as a Congress MP for Kurukshetra from 2004 to 2014 and is the son of the late industrialist and former Haryana minister O.P. Jindal. On the other hand, Chautala, aged 78, has a rich political lineage as the son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal and brother to Om Prakash Chautala, the chief of Indian National Lok Dal and former chief minister of Haryana.

The BJP's latest list also includes Mohan Lal Badoli from Sonipat and Arvind Kumar Sharma from Rohtak. Notably, Brijendra Singh, the sitting BJP MP from Hisar, recently resigned from both the party and Lok Sabha to join Congress. This reshuffle has led to new candidates being fielded in six constituencies: Kurukshetra, Karnal, Hisar, Sonipat, Sirsa, and Ambala.

Former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has been named as a candidate for Karnal, following his resignation as chief minister in a major shake-up within the state's leadership. This move came just hours before his nomination for the Lok Sabha elections was announced on March 13. Nayab Singh Saini, who recently succeeded Khattar as chief minister of Haryana, was previously representing Kurukshetra in the outgoing Lok Sabha.

In Sonipat, the BJP has chosen Badoli, an MLA from Rai Assembly segment, replacing its sitting MP Ramesh Chander Kaushik. Meanwhile, Arvind Kumar Sharma has been re-nominated to contest from Rohtak. The party has also confirmed its candidates for Gurugram, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, and Faridabad seats, re-nominating sitting MPs Rao Inderjit Singh, Dharambir Singh, and Krishan Pal Gurjar respectively.

The Ambala-SC parliamentary seat will see Banto Kataria stepping in following the vacancy created by the demise of her husband and former Union minister Rattan Lal Kataria last year. In contrast to BJP's completed list of candidates for Haryana's Lok Sabha seats, Congress is yet to announce its nominees for nine seats it is contesting in the state. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in collaboration with Congress for this election cycle in Haryana, has fielded its state unit chief Sushil Gupta for Kurukshetra. Additionally, Indian National Lok Dal senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala is contesting from Kurukshetra as well.

Polling for all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana is scheduled for May 25 as part of the sixth phase of the seven-phase general elections. The BJP aims to replicate its success from the last general elections held in 2019 when it won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.