lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 07, 2019 01:34 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced candidates for eight out of 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, retaining five of its sitting MPs.

The candidates for Hisar and Rohtak seats, represented in the 16th Lok Sabha by INLD MP Dushyant Chautala and Deepender Singh Hooda of the Congress respectively, are yet to be announced.

Party’s state unit chief Subhash Barala said the candidates for the remaining two seats would be declared soon.

The five sitting MPs given party ticket this time again are Rattan Lal Kataria for Ambala (SC) seat, Dharambir Singh for Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, Rao Inderjit for Gurugram, Krishanpal Gurjar for Faridabad and Ramesh Kaushik for Sonepat seat.

The ruling BJP has fielded three new faces—sitting MLA from Naraingarh, Nayab Saini for Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat, former Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer Sunita Duggal for Sirsa (SC) seat and Sanjay Bhatia, a party leader from Panipat, for Karnal seat.

Bhatia had to be brought in for the Karnal seat as the party’s sitting MP Ashwini Chopra had declined to contest this time citing health issues.

In Kurukshetra, since BJP MP Rajkumar Saini turned rebel and is contesting against the party after floating his own Loktantra Suraksha Party, the ticket has been giving to sitting MLA Nayab Saini.

In Sirsa, where BJP’s erstwhile ally Haryana Janhit Congress’ Sushil Indora had lost to INLD’s Charanjit Singh Rori in 2014, the saffron party is going alone this time and has fielded its candidate Duggal.

While the Hisar Lok Sabha seat is currently represented by INLD MP Dushyant Chautala who had defeated HJC’s Kuldeep Bishnoi, Rohtak seat is represented by Congress’ Deepender Singh Hooda who defeated BJP’s Om Prakash Dhankar in 2014.