JJP members meet, panel to take final call on candidates

Tribune News Service

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, March 22

With the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) redrawing its electoral strategy after its tie-up with the BJP collapsed in the Haryana recently, party workers have urged the leaders to contest the Lok Sabha elections for certain seats in the state.

Decision after holi

The party has completed the manthan and submitted the report to the political affairs committee. After Holi, it will decide the candidates’ names and release the list. — Nishan Singh, JJP state president

The JJP has held manthan sessions with the party workers of all Lok Sabha segments across the state. The sources said after the completion of the exercise, a report would be submitted to the political affairs committee (PAC) that would take the final decision.

JJP state president Nishan Singh told The Tribune that the party had completed the manthan and submitted their report to the PAC. “After Holi, the PAC will decide the names of the candidates and will release the list,” he said, adding that after Rao Bahadur Singh, some more leaders were likely to join the party in the next couple of days.

The party leadership was likely to field at least a member of Ajay Chautala’s family in the Lok Sabha poll. Former Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala and his mother Naina Chautala are the MLAs from Uchana Kalan (Jind) and Badhra (Charkhi Dadri) Assembly segments while younger brother of Dushyant, Digvijay Chautala, was the general secretary of the party, sources said. There is a probability that the party could field Naina Chautala from Hisar.

Former Nangal Chaudhary MLA and Congress leader Rao Bahadur Singh, who joined the JJP yesterday, could be one of the probable candidates from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat, sources further said. “The party has been in the wait and watch mode. There are certain leaders in other parties who are in contact with the JJP leaders and could join the party,” said a party leader.

Notably, the JJP has also fielded some turncoats in the 2019 Assembly elections, which proved beneficial for the party. The Congress leaders, Devender Babli in Tohana and Ishwar Singh in Guhla (reserved), and BJP leader Jogiram Sihag from Barwala had joined the JJP when they were denied tickets by their respective parties and later emerged victorious. Some other turncoats who lost the elections but showed good performance include Kharkhauda (Sonepat) candidate Pawan Kumar and Fatehabad candidate Ramchander Siwach.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, when the JJP contested the poll for the first time after its formation, the party had fielded candidates at seven seats and polled nearly 5 per cent votes.

However, it improved its presence in the state politics and drew around 15 per cent votes and won ten seats in 2019 Assembly elections.

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