lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 08, 2019 14:24 IST

Loktanter Suraksha Party (LSP) chief and Kurukshetra MP Raj Kumar Saini has decided not to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Saini said senior leaders of the LSP-BSP alliance did not field him into these elections because he wanted to campaign across all 10 Lok Sabha segments in Haryana. “I am not greedy to become an MP or a minister. I entered politics to help the poor and deprived sections of the society. I had quit the BJP because of its failure on all fronts and betrayal by not fulfilling promises made during the 2014 general elections,” the BJP rebel said.

“We would win all Lok Sabha seats in the state and Mayawati will become next prime minister,” he added.

Saini had contested 2014 parliamentary elections from Kurukshetra on BJP ticket and defeated his close rival, INLD’s Balbir Saini, by a margin of 1.29 lakh votes.

On Saturday, the BJP announced candidates for eight Lok Sabha seats in Haryana and fielded minister of state Nayab Saini from Kurukshetra. Saini’s LSP is contesting the elections in an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the state.

On the development, BSP’s state chief Prakash Bharti said Saini would be the star campaigner for the BSP-LSP alliance in Haryana. “We have given two seats to Saini’s LSP – Sonepat and Bhiwani-Mahendergarh. Remaining four candidates for the Gurugram, Sonepat , Kurukshetra and Sirsa seats will be announced within next three days,” he added.

BSP-LSP KICKS OFF POLL CAMPAIGN

The BSP-LSP alliance kicked off its election campaign from Naraingarh on Saturday by holding a meeting of workers and opening a party office. Terming Congress MP Kumari Selja and BJP’s sitting MP Rattan Lal Kataria outsiders, BSP’s state in-charge Dr Meghraj said, “This time, people will elect BSP’s Naresh Saran, a local man, as Kataria and Selja did not take up even a single development work.”