Clans, cousins, next gen dynasts face off in Haryana's game of thrones

With cousins facing off against each other, parties fielding turncoats, the next generation of dynasts debuting in electoral politics, and sportspersons in the fray, the Haryana Assembly polls promise several absorbing contests.

On Wednesday, the penultimate day for filing nominations for the October 5 polling, several key candidates filed their nominations. These included former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is contesting on a Congress ticket from his sitting Garhi Sampla-Kiloi seat in Rohtak.

Hooda said the Congress manifesto, to be unveiled soon, will promise to increase the old-age pension to Rs 6,000, providing cooking gas cylinders at Rs 500, and 300 units of free electricity. He flagged the jobs crisis and falling per capita income of Haryana in the last 10 years.

Olympian Vinesh Phogat also filed her nomination from the Julana seat in Jind, where she faces Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Yogesh Bairagi, a former commercial pilot. Julana is the hometown of Vinesh’s husband Somvir Rathee.

The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP)-Azad Samaj Party released another list of candidates, and announced support on the Rania Assembly seat to former minister Ranjit Singh Chautala. The JJP is led by Ranjit’s grandnephew Dushyant. Ranjit quit the BJP recently after being denied a ticket. He won from Rania in 2019 as an Independent, joining the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and unsuccessfully contested from the Hisar parliamentary seat.

Other key contenders to file their nominations were Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, former state home minister Anil Vij, and Congress’ Brijendra Singh, who is contesting against Dushyant from Uchana Kalan.

Brijendra is the son of former Union minister Birender Singh. Earlier with the Congress, Birender joined the BJP in 2014, but returned to the Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Brijendra was a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Hisar from 2019 to 2024.

BJP’s Arti Rao, daughter of Gurgaon MP and Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh, filed her nomination from the Ateli seat. BJP’s Shakti Rani Sharma, who recently joined the party, filed her papers from the Kalka seat. She is the mother of Independent Rajya Sabha MP Kartikeya Sharma, and wife of former minister Venod Sharma. He had quit the Congress in 2014 to launch the Haryana Jan Chetana Party, which performed poorly in that year’s Assembly polls in the state.

Until now, the BJP has announced candidates on 87 of the 90 seats. It has not fielded 14 of its sitting legislators, fielded 10 women against 12 five years ago and as many as 10 turncoats, including those who joined the party from the JJP in recent weeks.

The turncoats include Shruti Choudhry, who won the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket in 2009. She is the granddaughter of former Haryana CM Bansi Lal and daughter of Kiran Choudhry, who quit the Congress to get elected to the Rajya Sabha as a BJP member last month. Shruti faces her cousin and Congress candidate Anirudh from Bhiwani’s Tosham seat, which Bansi Lal represented on several occasions, and later her parents Surender Singh and Kiran.
 

The Congress is expected to release the names of the remainder of its candidates on Wednesday evening.