Chandigarh, Sep 5 (PTI) Hours after the ruling BJP put out its first list of 67 candidates for the Haryana Assembly polls, sitting MLA Lakshman Dass Napa quit the party while former minister Karan Dev Kamboj stepped down as state unit’s OBC Morcha chief after being denied tickets.
After quitting the party, Napa met former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his residence in the national capital and said he would be joining the Congress.
Napa, the sitting MLA from the Ratia reserve constituency in Fatehabad district, said he served his constituency with full dedication and undertook development work.
He said he could not understand why the party denied him a re-nomination from the assembly segment.
According to sources, Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala was also sulking and had called a meeting of his supporters after the party ignored his candidature from the Rania segment.
In another jolt to the BJP, former minister Kamboj said he has resigned as state president of the state BJP’s OBC Morcha and all party posts held by him apparently miffed over not getting a ticket.
Kamboj said he served the party with dedication for several years but “perhaps, the BJP does not need loyalists anymore”.
He said the party was rewarding new entrants with tickets while ignoring those who have been working for years.
Napa, in a letter to state party chief Mohan Lal Badoli, shortly after the BJP put out the first list of 67 candidates, said he was quitting the party and resigning from its primary membership.
State minister Chautala has not been fielded from the Rania seat in Sirsa district. The BJP has instead chosen Shishpal Kamboj.
Chautala had resigned as an Independent MLA from Rania ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to join the BJP and contested the Hisar parliamentary seat unsuccessfully.
A few sitting legislators, including minister Sanjay Singh and former minister Sandeep Singh, have not found mention in the BJP’s first list of candidates.
From Ratia, the party has fielded former Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Duggal was denied re-nomination from the Sirsa parliamentary constituency after former Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, who had joined BJP ahead of the LS polls, was given the ticket.
Tanwar, however, lost to Congress veteran Kumari Selja.
In its first list released on Wednesday, the BJP fielded Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini — the sitting MLA from Karnal — from the Ladwa seat and rewarded several recent entrants to the party with poll tickets.
The BJP is aiming for a hattrick in the Haryana Assembly polls but faces a tough challenge from a resurgent Congress which is looking to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor.
Saini is the BJP’s chief ministerial face for the assembly polls.
The counting of votes for the elections to the 90-member assembly will take place on October 8. PTI SUN RHL
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