Congress declares 88 out of 90 candidates for Haryana polls

Chandigarh: The Congress on Thursday released its fifth list of two candidates for the Haryana Assembly polls on October 5, taking the total number of candidates declared to 88 out of 90 seats.

The party fielded Naresh Selwal from Uklana (SC-reserved) and Jasbir Singh from the Narnaund seat. From Uklana, Member of Parliament Kumari Selja was keen to contest.

The two seats where the party has yet to name candidates are Sohna and Bhiwani.

Earlier, the party fielded Parimal Pari from Ambala Cantonment, Sachin Kundu from Panipat (Rural), Satbir Dublain from Narwana (SC), Sarva Mitra Kamboj from Rania and Rohit Nagar from Tigaon.

The party fielded its MP Randeep Surjewala’s son Aditya Surjewala from Kaithal.

From Panchkula, the Congress has fielded BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi’s elder brother and former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s son Chander Mohan, a close aide of Kumari Selja. Chandermohan had lost to BJP’s Gian Chand Gupta in 2019. Both are again pitched against each other.

For two-time Congress Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, 77, it’s a "do-or-die" battle to wrest the helm from the BJP in the polls amid the internal "war of supremacy" that kept his party out of power for a decade.

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Hooda, who is assumed the "de-facto" chief ministerial face of his party, on Wednesday filed his nomination papers from his stronghold Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district, the seat he has been representing ever since he became the first Chief Minister in 2005.

Thursday is the last day for filing nominations in the state.

For the past many months, Hooda has been travelling across the state by raising the pitch against unemployment, law and order and lack of development by the BJP helm in comparison to the Congress, which ruled the state for a decade till 2014, and consolidating Jats, the crucial vote bank. Ahead of filing the nomination papers, a confidant Hooda told the media that there is a straight contest between the Congress and the BJP. "It's a bipolar contest and the people are upset with government policies and they are going to show the BJP the door this time," he said.

While first-time Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who has filed his nomination papers from the Ladwa seat of Kurukshetra, has travelled across the state ahead of the announcement of the poll date, the Congress under the leadership of Hooda and his MP son Deepender Hooda has been busy in setting party's house in order and boosting the morale of cadre by holding public meetings.