BJP nominee endorses policies of father’s rival

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, December 3

Politics makes strange bedfellows. This old adage rang true as the BJP’s mayoral candidate Manmohan Goyal vowed to follow the policies and programmes of the late BJP stalwart Mangal Sen, arch-rival of his late father Seth Shri Kishan Dass.

The BJP candidate Goyal, who had remained associated with the Congress till 2014, kicked off his poll campaign by offering floral tributes to Sen here on Sunday. He vowed to follow Sen’s policies and principles.

Questioned about change of heart, Goyal maintained that the rivalry between his late father and Sen was political. He said as he joined the BJP in 2014, he had adopted the saffron party’s ideology as well.

“Politics is in my blood and my motive is to serve the people,” he said. An industrialist, he was associated with various social and voluntary organisations.

He asserted that he would work for the progress of all sections of society. He lambasted the Congress for not fielding nominees on party symbol.

The Rohtak Assembly seat was considered a stronghold of Sen, who won it in 1967, 1968, 1977, 1982 and 1987. In 1977 and 1987, he defeated his bête noire Dass.

Originally with the Congress, Dass wrested the seat from the BJP stalwart in 1972 and 1985 (byelection). Dass later joined the Haryana Vikas Party and won the Rohtak seat in 1996.