Following the polls schedule issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI), voting for 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana will be held on May 25 while the nomination process pertaining to the same started. With less than a month left for the elections, political parties are on toes to strengthen their position in a bid to emerge victorious in all maximum parliamentary seats. In this battle of Lok Sabha elections, the main contest is believed to be between the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and Congress. While BJP has long ago announced candidates for all 10 parliamentary seats, Congress has so far announced candidates for 9 seats. Aam Aadmi Party, being a partner of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, was given the Kurukshetra seat by the Congress. Amid the preparations for polls, what continues to remain in discussions and talks in political spheres is the denial of tickets to several stalwarts and prominent political families by the saffron BJP and Congress. In wake of this, the candidates disgruntled with the denial of tickets are believed to create problems for the party candidates. The BJP has denied three sitting MP’s contrary to expectations following the internal survey conducted by the party. Similarly, members of three prominent political families are also denied tickets leaving them stunned which is most likely to result in infighting in the party ahead of polls. The leaders have opened the front regarding ticket denial and these leaders may be talking about helping Congress externally but their statements are directly indicating rebellion. Political leaders including Chanakya Sharma, son of former assembly speaker Kuldeep Sharma, Brijendra Singh, son of Birender Singh, Shruti Chaudhary, daughter of sitting MLA Kiran Chaudhary and the BJP big shot Kuldeep Bishnoi were seeking ticket from Karnal, Hisar, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh and Hisar respectively but denied the same.
In continuation to aforesaid, it is pertinent to mention that the Congress heavyweight Kuldeep Sharma was seeking a ticket for his son Chanakya Sharma from Karnal Lok Sabha. Kuldeep sharma’s disappointment is evident since Kuldeep Sharma, son of pandit chiranji lal sharma, four time MP from the seat, was a senior most leader of the congress. It is a noticeable fact that Sharma’s family has been loyal to the party working at ground level for decades . Despite this and contrary to expectations, candidates have been given tickets on the basis of favouritism rather than winnability factor. Much remains to be seen how would be the moves of these senior leaders of the party and how it would adversely impact congress in the state elections This favouritism and wrong selection of candidates and oversight of senior leaders would affect congress prospects in polls. Political analysts are of the opinion that Sharma family would have been a better option for the ticket on the seat as it has strong hold among voters carrying a rich political legacy at the state as well as National level. Besides, the denying ticket to strong contenders having widespread electoral support in the state is most likely to have far reaching implications on the forthcoming assembly polls due most probably in the month of October this year. The family of former late Chief Minister Bansilal needs no introduction in the state politics. His daughter-in-law and Congress MLA Kiran Chaudhary was seeking a ticket for her daughter and former MP Shruti Chaudhary from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat, but contrary to expectations, the party high command rejected the ticket. Instead of Shruti, the party has fielded its arch rival and party MLA Rao Dan Singh, who belongs to the Bhupendra Singh Hooda camp, in the election battle here. The fight for supremacy has been going on between Kiran Choudhary and Hooda for a long time and due to this political tussle, the daughter could not get the ticket. After ticket denial, Kiran Choudhary called her supporters on 28th April and during this, taking a jibe at him, she said that she will help Rao Dan Singh as much as Rao Dan Singh had once helped her. In such a situation, it is clear from his statement that Rao Dan Singh will have to face not only the opposition party but also the prevailing internal conflict within the party. Similarly, Congress veteran Chaudhary Birendra Singh, who had joined the party in a bid to fulfill his political ambitions but due to not getting a ticket in BJP, was also disappointed with the ticket distribution.
The party refused a ticket to his son and sitting BJP MP Brajendra Singh, who is being discussed extensively in political circles.
Brijendra was considered a strong contender for ticket from Hisar and Sonipat, but former minister Jay Pakash , a confidant and a close one to Bhupender Singh Hooda has been fielded. Following the same, they have refrained themselves from canvassing for the party candidate. While regarding this, he said, I will campaign for the candidates on only being invited. His son Brijendra Singh said that ‘’The world is not as simple as I think. I used to think of the world as black and white. The world is gray too, now we know”.
Likewise, BJP big shot Kuldeep Bishnoi, former MP from Hisar seat and son of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, expressed his displeasure over not getting the ticket.
Due to this, he refrained from the campaigning of party candidate Ranjit Singh Chautala. During this time, videos of Kuldeep and son Bhavya Bishnoi also went viral on social media, in which the displeasure of father and son due to not getting tickets was clearly visible. However, he attended the party rally held in Adampur as part of polls preparations and canvassing which is being considered a relief for the party candidate Ranjeet Singh.In a run to the forthcoming parliamentary parliamentary polls, the BJP high command has declared candidates for 10 all Lok Sabha seats. Of the total name of candidates the BJP has declared from Haryana, six are new faces- Hisar, Sonipat, Sirsa, Ambala, Kurukshetra and Karnal while four of the sitting MP’s have been repeated as contestants on their previous seats. The list of the four of the sitting MP’s fielded in the polls includes the names of Arvind Sharma, Rao Inderjeet, Krishan Pal Gurjar and Dharambir SIngh who will contest the polls from Rohtak, Gurugram, Faridabad and Bhiwani-Mahendergarh.
RC Kaushik, Sanjay Bhatia and Sunita Duggal are among the BJP MP’s denied tickets while Brijendera Singh had bid a farewell to the party following the possibility of denial of ticket and finally joined the Congress.