Randeep Surjewala, Kumari Shailja and Deepak Bapriya.
Ahead of the Haryana assembly elections, the Congress on Wednesday announced that the party’s sitting MPs will not be allowed to contest elections in the state. With this announcement, speculations about Lok Sabha MP Kumari Selja and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala contesting the Haryana elections have come to an end. Congress general secretary and Haryana in-charge Deepak Babria said that party MPs will not be allowed to contest assembly elections.
Deepak Babria said that no one will be allowed to contest the elections. He said that Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs will campaign for the party’s candidates for the state elections. He said 25 seats and possible panels were discussed in the party meeting. No MP has sought ticket and we will not field any MP. It will be clear by second or third of next month.
Deepak Babria’s announcement comes amid reports that Kumari Shailja and Randeep Surjewala may contest the assembly elections. Lok Sabha MP Shailja from Sirsa has shown interest in contesting the upcoming assembly elections. He is also the prominent Dalit face of the Congress.
Haryana BJP targets Congress
Meanwhile, Haryana BJP has posted on Twitter in Hindi that BJP has already nominated a Chief Minister from Backward Classes. Rahul Gandhi has claimed that he strongly supports the Scheduled Caste community. They (Congress) should announce Shailaja Ji as Chief Ministerial candidate from Haryana, to show how much they are well wishers of (Scheduled Caste) community.
The Congress held a meeting on Wednesday in which the party agreed on at least 18 seats in the 90-seat Assembly. Babria also said that incumbent MLAs, who are facing anti-incumbency wave or have a bad image in their constituencies, will not be given tickets in the next elections.
Politics has heated up over the Haryana assembly elections
Haryana assembly elections will be held on October 1 and the results will be declared on October 4. However, the Haryana BJP wrote to the Election Commission last week requesting to postpone the polls for some time. The BJP says the polling percentage may drop due to holidays before and after the election date.
