JJP names 4 candidates, average age 32

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 18

The Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) today announced its candidates for four out of seven seats with Dushyant Chautala (31) re-contesting from Hisar, where he will be pitted against bureaucrat-turned-politician Brijendra Singh of the BJP, besides others.

In 2014, Dushyant, then 26, was elected as the youngest MP of the country from Hisar on an INLD ticket. In December last year, he launched his own party JJP following differences with his uncle Abhay Singh Chautala that led to a split in Chautala clan.

A JJP spokesperson said candidates for Gurgaon, Sonepat and Kurukshetra will be announced soon. Under the alliance, Ambala, Karnal and Faridabad seats have been given to AAP.

The JJP has fielded 30-year-old Swati Yadav, director of Euro Group of Schools, which has a chain of 11 schools in NCR, from  Bhiwani-Mahendragarh. 

Swati, who did her MBA and Bachelor of Science from the US, is the daughter of Satyavir Nautana, district president of JJP who had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly elections on the INLD ticket from Ateli in 2014.

Swati will be facing Shruti Choudhry of the Congress and sitting MP Dharambir Singh of the BJP.

Pradeep Deswal (32) has been fielded from Rohtak where he will contest against sitting MP Deepender Hooda of the Congress and former MP Arvind Sharma of the BJP.

Deswal is the state president of JJP’s student wing and has done his LLM from MDU.

Nirmal Singh Malhari, 37, who has been given the ticket from Sirsa (SC) constituency, is the oldest of the four. He is a Dalit whose family is into selling vegetables. Malhari is a Punjabi folk singer who has performed in over 1,000 programmes. The average age of the four candidates is 32.5.