BSP-LSP alliance announces six candidates for LS polls in Hry

The BSP and its alliance partner Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP), an outfit floated by rebel BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini, on Tuesday announced six candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Haryana.

The candidates were finalised in consultation with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, the leaders of the two parties said.

Of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, the Bahujan Ssamaj Party (BSP) will contest on eight and the LSP on two, they said.

The candidates whose names were announced at a press conference in Rohtak included farmers, businessmen, social workers and party workers.

LSP supremo Saini, BSP senior leader Meghraj and party state president Prakash Bharti said the names were announced after consulting Mayawati.

The LSP fielded Ramesh Rao Pilot from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh parliamentary constituency but is yet to finalise a name for the Kurukshetra seat, even though Saini had earlier said that he would seek re-election from there.

The BSP has fieldedNaresh Saran from Ambala Lok Sabha seat, Pankaj Chaudhary from Karnal, Kishan Lal from Rohtak, Mandhir Singh from Faridabad and Surendra Sharma from Hisar.

The alliance leaders alleged that the parties who have been holding power in Haryana have over the years used Dalits and the backward classes as a votebank.

Saini, the sitting MP from Kurukshetra, said that he was fighting for the rights of Dalits and the oppressed classes.

Meghraj announced that the names of the remaining candidates will be announced over the next few days.

The alliance partners will jointly hold rallies all over Haryana and Mayawati too would be campaigning in the state, Bharti said, adding that the dates were yet to be finalised.

The BSP had in February called off its nearly nine-month-old alliance with Haryana's main opposition the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and forged ties with the Saini-led LSP.

The development had taken place days after the Om Prakash Chautala-led INLD suffered a humiliating defeat in the Jind bypolls, with party candidate Umed Singh Redhu forfeiting his security deposit.

Saini had last year floated the LSP and the candidate fielded by the party in the Jind bypolls had put up a better performance than INLD's Redhu.

The INLD and the BSP had entered into an alliance in April last year, which both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress had described as a "marriage of convenience".