Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) leader and former Minister of State for Home, Gopal Goyal Kanda was on Tuesday acquitted in the Geetika Sharma suicide case. Kanda is the party’s lone MLA from Sirsa. In the meantime, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been keeping close tabs on the seat, which is a stronghold of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).
Until the acquittal, the BJP was reluctant to openly support Kanda but it can now take the MLA’s support to strengthen its own position in Sirsa. Kanda’s brother, Gobind, joined the BJP nearly two years ago and was the consensus candidate of the BJP-JJP alliance for the Ellenabad by-poll. There have been rumblings that keeping this in mind, the BJP would like the merger of the HLP to further strengthen its position.
Although Kanda is a seasoned politician, he is likely to not merge his party with the BJP so soon. Even so, the Haryana Lokhit Party was included in the recent meeting of NDA allies held in New Delhi. Notably, Kanda has not denied outright a potential merger of the HLP with the BJP. The HLP will soon be holding a party meeting wherein it is expected there will be a churning for the expansion of the party. The BJP would also like to take advantage of Kanda not only in Sirsa but in its other Assembly seats as well. It is pertinent to mention that Sirsa is also the home district of former CM Omprakash Chautala and current Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala. Kanda’s internal accounts are with BJP only, but it is for Kanda to decide whether he will give more expansion to HLP or join BJP.
After being acquitted in the death case that dragged on for 11 years, Kanda paid obeisance at Delhi Kali Mata temple in Delhi,
Post-acquittal, new paths have also been opened for the HLP leader; Kanda will now easily be able to join any party or expand his own party as he wishes. At the same time, along with losing the ministerial post, he also had to face defeat in the assembly elections held in the year 2014. Not only this, even after the victory in the last assembly elections, he was sidelined by the BJP because of the stain of the case. Now all these questions are over, giving a new lease of life for his political career.
In the Assembly elections held in the year 2019, Gopal Kanda was elected as MLA from Sirsa for the second time. Earlier BJP took support from Kanda only from outside.
All arrangements for Amit Shah’s rally in Sirsa were made by Kanda. Sirsa has been a stronghold of the Chautala family for a long time. INLD, JJP are a big challenge for BJP here. For the last 27 years, BJP has not been able to bloom lotus in Sirsa district. The BJP has found a non-Jat face in the Punjabi belt of Sirsa in Kanda.
