In Cong list of 8 for Haryana, Hooda gets 7

Hooda’s son and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda has again been fielded from Rohtak, while former Union minister and Congress general secretary Kumari Selja will be the candidate from the Sirsa reserved seat. Selja has been pitted against former Haryana Congress president and BJP candidate Ashok Tanwar in Sirsa. Deepender will be contesting against sitting BJP MP Arvind Kumar Sharma. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Sharma defeated Deepender by a thin margin of nearly 7,500 votes.

In a surprising choice, the Congress has fielded youth leader Divyanshu Budhiraja against former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar from the Karnal Lok Sabha seat. Like Khattar, Budhiraja also comes from the Punjabi community.

From the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat, the Congress has replaced Shruti Choudhry (granddaughter of former CM Bansi Lal) with Rao Dan Singh this time. Rao is considered close to Hooda. Bhiwani-Mahendragarh has been considered a traditional seat of the family of Bansi Lal. But this time, the party appears to have changed its strategy while fielding an OBC community member against sitting BJP MP Dharambir Singh, who comes from the Jat community.

Against popular anticipation, the Congress did not field Brijendra Singh from the Hisar seat. Singh is the son of former Union minister Chaudhary Birender Singh and had won the 2019 parliamentary elections from Hisar as a BJP candidate. In March this year, he joined the Congress and resigned from the Lok Sabha membership. This time, the Congress has fielded former Union minister Jai Prakash, who is close to Hooda, from Hisar.

From Ambala, the party has fielded sitting MLA Varun Choudhary. Varun is the son of former Haryana Congress president Phool Chand Mullana, a long-time associate of Hooda. From Sonipat, the party has fielded a Hooda associate Satpal Brahmachari, while former state minister Mahendra Pratap has been fielded from Faridabad.

All India Congress Committee sources said the party relied upon internal surveys carried out in constituencies to know the winnability of candidates. The caste equations have also been kept in mind while declaring candidates, they said.

Out of eight candidates, two (Deepender Hooda and Jai Prakash) are from the Jat community, while another two (Rao Dan Singh and Mahendra Pratap) are from the OBC category. Kumari Selja and Varun Chaudhary are from Scheduled Castes, while Satpal Brahmachari is a Brahmin. Budhiraja, who is from the Punjabi community, has been fielded from the prestigious Karnal seat in an attempt to woo the Punjabi community, especially after the BJP replaced its chief minister (Khattar) in Haryana with Nayab Singh Saini last month.

For the Gurgaon seat, party sources said, the Congress is considering the names of actor-turned-politician Rajbabbar and former state minister Captain Ajay Singh. However, a final decision could not be taken till Thursday night.