On last day of filing nominations, INLD springs surprise, decides not to contest Sirsa, Meham

The INLD sprang a surprise on Friday by not fielding a candidate from Sirsa, considered the party's stronghold, on the last day of filing of nominations for the Haryana Assembly polls.

After releasing its list of 64 candidates on October 2, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) released more names hours before the nominations closed on Friday.

The former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala-led party had left four seats for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), with which they recently entered into an alliance. However, the SAD claimed that they fielded only three candidates.

When contacted, SAD senior vice president Daljit Singh Cheema said his party had fielded candidates only on three seats.

INLD state unit president B D Dhalia said the SAD would contest Ambala City, Guhla, Ratia and Kalanwali reserved seats. However, in the list released by INLD, the name of the SAD candidate from Ambala City was not mentioned.

The INLD did not field candidates from Karnal, Sirsa and Meham.

Dhalia said that INLD candidate from Karnal, from where Chief Minister M L Khattar is seeking a second term, failed to reach the office of the returning officer on time.

"Our Karnal candidate could not reach the RO's office on time and missed filing his papers," he said.

About Sirsa and Meham, Dhalia said that INLD had decided to support independent candidates Gokul Setia and Balraj Kundu.

On September 25, Chautala had announced that the party would give 33 per cent reservation to women when tickets would be distributed, but out of the 83 seats on which the INLD was contesting, only 15 women were given tickets.

There was a feud in the Chautala family following which there was a vertical split in the party, founded by former deputy prime minister Devi Lal. Then the Jannayak Janta Party was formed by Abhay Chautala's nephew and former Hisar MP, Dushyant Chautala.

O P Chautala is serving a jail sentence in connection with the teachers recruitment scam and is out on parole these days.

The INLD, which has been out of power in the state for 14 years, has been going through rough times since its split. Besides, party chief O P Chautala, his younger son Abhay Chautala is the only prominent leader left in INLD now as most of the party's sitting MLAs and other leaders have switched over to the BJP.