More head for exit in BJP Haryana unrest

“I struggled for 55 years, nobody has the courage to finish me”, Sharma said. Despite Sharma being among the BJP’s senior-most Haryana leaders, the party did not declare its Mahendragarh candidate in the first list.

“We are the people who planted seeds of the party here (in Haryana). If anybody tries to fiddle with the saplings we sowed, it hurts,” Sharma said.

In 2014, when the BJP created history by forming its first government in Haryana after winning an outright majority in the polls for Haryana’s 90-member Assembly, Sharma was among the front-runners for the Chief Minister’s post. But the party instead chose Manohar Lal Khattar, who contested and won his debut Assembly poll from Karnal. In 2019, Sharma lost in Mahendragarh to the Congress’s Rao Dan Singh.

Aditya Chautala, former PM Devi Lal’s grandson, was among the other unhappy BJP leaders. On Friday, he quit as the chairman of a corporation in Haryana and resigned from the party after he was overlooked by the party for its Dabwali seat. Aditya, who lost the seat in 2019, is now likely to rejoin his former party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) rather than the Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party, which has already announced the former Deputy CM’s cousin Digvijay Chautala as its candidate there.

In Kalka too, former BJP MLA Latika Sharma was visibly upset with her party after it fielded former Union minister Venod Sharma’s wife Shakti Rani within three days of her joining the party. Latika won the Kalka seat in 2014 but lost to the Congress candidate five years later. Addressing her supporters in Kalka, she was seen wiping tears and giving an emotional speech. “I shall be having a discussion with my supporters and then take a decision on my future course of action,” Latika said.

In Gurgaon, the BJP faced more resignations over ticket allocation. BJP leader and Faridabad in-charge G L Sharma quit on Friday along with his supporters after being denied the Gurgaon ticket, with sources saying he is expected to join the Congress.