Haryana polls: Vinesh Phogat, Bhupinder Hooda named in first list as Cong retains 29 MLAs
New Delhi: Veteran Congress leader and two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Olympian wrestler Vinesh Phogat, state unit chief Udai Bhan, and former minister Geeta Bhukkal are among the 32 candidates named by the Congress in its first list for the October 5 Assembly elections in Haryana released on Friday evening.
The Congress has given tickets to 29 sitting legislators in the state. The party first issued a list of 31 candidates, before adding the name of Balbir Singh, the sitting legislator from the Israna (SC) Assembly constituency.
While Hooda will contest from his stronghold Garhi Sampla-Killoi in Rohtak district, Phogat will make her electoral debut from Julana in Jind district.
The party’s first list was released hours after Phogat and Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Bajrang Punia joined the Congress at the party headquarters in Delhi.
Udai Bhan will contest from Hodal (SC), while Bhukkal has been fielded from Jhajjar (SC).
The other candidates named in the first list include veteran lawmaker Rao Dan Singh from Mahendragarh, Mewa Sing from Ladwa, from where BJP has fielded Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Mamman Khan from Ferozepur Jhirka, Rajinder Singh Joon from Bahadurgarh, and Surender Panwar from Sonipat.
Olympians Phogat and Punia formally joined the party on Friday, a day after meeting top party leader Rahul Gandhi.
While Phogat has got a ticket, Punia has been appointed the Working Chairman of the All India Kisan Congress.
On joining politics, Phogat said, “It was only the Congress which understood our tears. This is a new chapter in my life. I will work for other athletes so that they don’t go through what we faced.”
She also resigned from the Indian Railways citing personal reasons ahead of joining the party.
Badli legislator Kuldeep Vats has been retained on the seat. Likewise, sitting legislators Pradeep Chaudhary and Shalley Chaudhary have been fielded from Kalka and Naraingarh Assembly seats, respectively.
Shahbad sitting legislator Ram Karan, who shifted loyalties to Congress from Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), has been given a ticket from the same seat.
The list was released amid seat-sharing talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), after the Central Election Committee (CEC) of Congress met here. The meeting was attended, among others, by party President Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, General Secretary K.C. Venugopal, and AICC state in-charge Deepak Babaria, besides Bhupinder Hooda.
Sources in the Congress said that senior leaders, including Bhupinder Hooda, expressed reservations over the tie-up with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, saying AAP does not have much ground in the state.
The 90-member Haryana Assembly will go to the polls on October 5. The results will be out on October 8.