Got INLD ticket on merit, claims Yadav

Mahendragarh, February 8

Satbir Yadav, who contested the Assembly election on INLD ticket from Ateli here in 2014, has said former CM Om Prakash Chautala had given him the ticket on merit. He gave nothing in return. Hence, there is no truth in the allegations levelled by Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala.

“I had staked claim for the party ticket from Ateli before Chautala who was undergoing treatment at a Gurugram-based hospital at that time. Being the president of the INLD, he was the final authority to allot the ticket. The ticket issued to me was also signed by him so there was no role of Ajay Chautala, who was in jail at that time,” Yadav told The Tribune.

Abhay, at a state-level meeting of the INLD in Chandigarh on Wednesday, had told party workers tickets for Ateli, Fatehabad and Ballabhgarh seats in the 2014 state Assembly elections were sold for Rs50 lakh each. He also blamed Ajay for selling the tickets.

In the 2014 poll, Yadav lost to BJP candidate Santosh Yadav by a massive margin of 48,601 votes. Santosh polled 64,659 votes and Satbir got 16,058. — TNS