Hooda has his way in Haryana Congress candidate list

While balancing caste equations, the Congress has reposed faith in the leadership of former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the party announced candidates for eight of the nine seats it will be contesting in the state, with seven of these tickets handed to his aides.  A report by Aayush Goel

The electoral battle in Haryana heats up as Congress has after weeks of deliberation unveiled its list of 8 candidates for 9 Lok Sabha seats it plans to contest. The party has skipped fielding a candidate at Kurukshetra offering it to Aam Aadmi party (AAP) and it is still to decide between actor Raj Babbar and Ahir stalwart Captain Ajay Yadav for Gurgaon seat. AAP, a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, has already declared its candidate Sushil Gupta from the Kurukshetra seat as per the seat agreement with Congress. Gupta is AAP’s Haryana state President and a former Rajya Sabha MP. Though the Congress list has taken caste equations into account, it has also established supremacy of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Seven of these 8 tickets have been handed out to his close associates and supporters, aiming to bolster his position ahead of the assembly polls. “Party has chosen those who have better prospects in their constituencies and all leaders will abide by the party’s mandate. We are all fighting for a common cause and have no differences when it comes to the intent of defeating BJP,” said Hooda. While war is on for Gurgaon constituency which is biggest in terms of voters and has nine assembly segments dominated by Yadav-Ahir voters, the ignorance of two prominent political families in this list has started infighting in the party with high command trying its best to keep things calm. As Ajay Yadav does not belong to Hooda faction his supporters claim the former CM wants to end his political career by removing him from the contender’s list. As expected Bhupinder Hooda’s son and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda has been fielded for Lok Sabha from Hooda’s home turf,  Rohtak. Hooda, a four time MP will be contesting against sitting BJP MP Arvind Sharma. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Sharma defeated Deepender by a thin margin of nearly 7,500 votes. Former Union minister and Congress general secretary Kumari Selja will be the candidate from the Sirsa reserved seat. She has been pitted against former Haryana Congress president and now a turncoat BJP candidate Ashok Tanwar in Sirsa.