Ex-MP Shruti Choudhry will face off with her lesser-known cousin Anirudh Chaudhry in former Haryana CM and strongman Bansi Lal’s family bastion
Former Hisar MP Brijendra Singh, who is respected farmers’ champion Sir Chhotu Ram’s great grandson and former Union minister Birender Singh’s son, will lock horns with former Dy CM and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala from Uchana Kalan
Three senior leaders, who lost the last assembly elections in 2019, renominated from the same constituencies
Awaiting outcome of seat-sharing negotiations with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress is holding back naming of a large chunk of its nominees, even as the last day for filing of nominations for the October 5 assembly election in Haryana is just three days away (Sept 12).
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The party, sensing that the prevailing political situation in the state has given it some momentum, and desperate to capitalise on it to wrest back power from the BJP after 10 years, on Sunday night released a second list of just nine nominees to add to the 32 names it released in two parts in the first list.
After seemingly unending talks, Congress is learnt to have served a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum to AAP on Sunday to accept a handful of specific constituencies being offered to it, or there is no-deal.
Some senior AAP leaders, like Somnath Bharti, are not keen on a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in Haryana, considering that the experiment proved disastrous for the party in the recent Lok Sabha elections in Delhi. They argue that while the AAP leadership put its heart into campaigning for Congress candidates, there was little reciprocal support from the Congress leadership for AAP candidates.
One of the most interesting aspects of Congress’ second list is that the party has tried to invoke the legacies of two tall leaders from the state’s past – Sir Chhotu Ram, well respected champion of farmers’ cause; and former chief minister for multiple tenures and Haryana strongman Bansi Lal – to counter the BJP.
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Bansi Lal’s grandchildren to face off in Tosham
After Bansi Lal’s daughter-in-law Kiran Choudhry, widow of his younger son and minister Surender Singh; and her daughter Shruti Choudhry, a former Lok Sabha MP from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, left the Congress and joined the BJP earlier this year, Congress was looking for another face from the family to challenge Kiran-Shruti combine.
Kiran Choudhry was recently elected Rajya Sabha MP from the state as a BJP nominee and Shruti has been named as the party nominee to contest the assembly elections from Tosham in Bhiwani district, the pocket borough of the Bansi Lal family.
To counter Shruti Choudhry, Congress has named Bansi Lal’s grandson Anirudh Chaudhry, from his elder son Ranbir Singh Mahendra, as its nominee from Tosham. Little is known about Anirudh’s exploits in politics, through he has been a cricketer and treasurer of the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI). His father Ranbir Singh Mahendra has also remained president and secretary of the governing body of cricket in India in the early 2000s.
Mahendra has also remained MLA from Mundhal Khurd constituency, the last one before it ceased to exist after the 2008 delimitation exercise undertaken by the Election Commission of India. Its erstwhile territories were redistributed among other constituencies.
Bansi Lal’s elder son also contested the last assembly elections from Badhra in Charkhi Dadri district as Congress candidate in 2019, but lost to JJP’s Naina Singh Chautala, wife of party’s national president Ajay Singh Chautala and mother of former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala.
Tosham constituency has been represented for most part since 1967 by the Bansi Lal family – Bansi Lal himself, his younger son Surender Singh and daughter-in-law Kiran Choudhry.
Upholding Bansi Lal’s legacy, Kiran Choudhry has uninterruptedly held the seat since 2005 when she won a by-poll, necessitated by the death of her then minister husband Surender Singh in a chopper crash along with another minister and noted industrialist OP Jindal.
Tosham also falls in the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency, which Shruti Choudhry represented as a Congressperson from 2009 to 2014, after which it has been served without interruption by Dharambir Singh Chaudhary of the BJP.
Encashing Sir Chhotu Ram’s legacy in Uchana Kalan
To contest from Uchana Kalan in Jind district on the party ticket, Congress has chosen Brijendra Singh, ex-IAS officer and former BJP Lok Sabha member from Hisar, who switched over to the Congress in March ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Brijendra is great grandson of Sir Chhotu Ram, the champion of farmers; and son of former Haryana finance minister in the Congress government Birender Singh, who had switched over the BJP and found a berth in the Union council of ministers and is now back in the Congress.
Brijendra will be pitted against incumbent Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLA and former deputy chief minister in the now broken BJP-JJP coalition government Dushyant Chautala, who too will be banking on the legacy of his great grandfather, former Dy PM Devi Lal.
In the past, the constituency has been represented four times by Brijendra’s father Birender Singh and once by his mother Prem Lata. Dushyant’s grandfather and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala has represented it once before he himself.
Others in the list
Among others named in Congress’ second list are Balram Dangi, son of former minister Anand Singh Dangi from Meham assembly constituency in Rohtak district; Manju Choudhary, wife of Gujjar leader Mula Ram, from Nangal Chaudhary constituency in Mahendragarh district; and former Haryana ministers Ashok Arora and Paramvir Singh from Thanesar (Kurukshetra district) and Tohana (Fatehabad district) assembly constituencies, respectively, despite both having lost the last elections from the same constituencies in 2019.
Former Haryana assembly speaker Kuldeep Sharma is the party’s nominee from Ganaur assembly seat in Sonipat district from where he won twice, in 2009 and 2014, but lost in 2019 to BJP’s Nirmal Rani.
From Gurugram district, two new faces – Mohit Grover from Gurugram constituency and Vardhan Yadav from Badshahpur constituency – have been given the party tickets.
Mohit Grover, son of party’s former district president Madan Lal Grover, as Congress rebel (independent) candidate in the 2019 assembly elections had polled more than 25% of the votes, against official Congress candidate Sukhbir Kataria’s dismal 12% voters. He had, however, lost the elections to BJP’s Sudhir Singla, who polled more than 43% votes, by a big margin.
Vardhan Yadav, a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), faces a daunting task of vastly improving the party’s dismal performance in Badshahpur constituency in the 2019 assembly elections. The elections had been won by independent candidate Rakesh Daultabad, a businessman and committed social worker, who defeated BJP candidate Manish Yadav by more than 10,000 votes. Congress finished among the also rans.
Though he won as an independent, defeating the BJP candidate, Daultabad steadfastly supported the BJP-JJP coalition government in the state led by Manohar Lal and later BJP government led by Nayab Singh Saini. He passed away due to cardiac arrest at an early age of 44 years in May this year.
