Chandigarh: CLP leader Kiran Chaudhary on Tuesday said that the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress has finalised the names of six candidates for the Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.
“Since we have time to go to the polls, a meeting of the screening committee will be held on April 7 or 8, following which the candidates will be announced formally. As of now those who have been declared have started campaigning in their respective constituencies,” Chaudhary said.
The grand old party is likely to field Ashok Tanwar, Deepender Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja, Naveen Jindal, Kuldeep Bishnoi and Shruti Chaudhary to contest the polls.
While Deepender Hooda is the sole sitting MP among these candidates, all others, barring Selja, had lost the elections in 2014.
The Congress is likely to nominate former union minister Kumari Selja from Ambala (SC) constituency. Selja didn’t contest the election in 2009.
Ex-MP Jindal may get a ticket to contest from Kurukshetra. In 2014, the two-time MP had lost to BJP’S Raj Kumar Saini from the same seat.
Bishnoi, who also served as Hisar MP in the past, would get a ticket to the same constituency. He founded Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) in 2007 after he was ousted from the Congress ‘anti-party activities’. But had later merged it with the Congress in 2016.
Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar is expected to contest again from Sirsa constituency. He had in 2014 lost the seat to Dushyant Chautala who had fought on an INLD ticket.
From Bhiwani-Mahendragarh constituency, the Congress will probably field Shruti Chaudhary again. She is the daughter of Kiran Chaudhary and represented the seat in 2009 after defeating Abhay Singh Chautala of the INLD. She had, however, lost to Dharabir Singh of the BJP in 2014.
In Rohtak, the Congress is sure to go with its three-time MP Deepender Singh Hooda. The son of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is the sitting MP from Rohtak.
The choice of candidates can be directly linked to the recent Parviartan Yatra of the Haryana Congress that toured all the 10 parliamentary constituencies of the state.
The names of Shruti Chaudhary and Ashok Tanwar had become apparent after they were endorsed by the state party leaders during the Yatra.
Similarly, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had joined the tour from Ambala constituency, traversing through Kurukshetra and Karnal with Selja and Jindal on board, giving an inkling of the prospective candidates.
Bishnoi too had joined the Parivartan Yatra the same day alongside Rahul Gandhi after skipping the meet of the newly-formed Co-ordination Committee of the Haryana Congress.
The Congress is yet to announce candidates from Sonepat, Faridabad, Gurugram and Karnal parliamentary seats.
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