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Three more Haryana BJP leaders resign after release of second list

The BJP Wednesday also dropped veteran leader and five-time MLA from Mahendragarh, Rambilas Sharma (73). This happened hours after he filed his nomination as a BJP candidate.

Haryana BJP, Satyavrat Shastri, Haryana Assembly, Haryana Assembly Elections 2024, Haryana Assembly polls, Indian express news, current affairs

After the party released its first list of 67 candidates on September 5, there were several voices of dissent who went on to resign from the party. Savitri Jindal, mother of party MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal, rebelledafter being denied a ticket from Hisar.

Within hours of the BJP naming 21 candidates in its second list for the Haryana elections, disgruntled party leaders Tuesday began resigning from their posts and the party’s primary membership — much like the spate of resignations that followed the release of the first list days ago.

At least three party leaders — former Haryana Assembly Deputy Speaker Santosh Yadav, state BJP spokesperson Satyavrat Shastri, and BJP state executive committee member Shiv Kumar Mehta — resigned from their posts as well as the primary membership of the party by Tuesday evening.

The BJP Wednesday also dropped veteran leader and five-time MLA from Mahendragarh, Rambilas Sharma (73). This happened hours after he filed his nomination as a BJP candidate.

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Yadav, who is currently the Haryana BJP’s vice-president, told The Indian Express: “I won the 2014 Assembly elections from Ateli. Even after being a committed worker and working at the grassroots… I might now contest as an Independent.” Yadav was looking for a ticket from Narnaul, where the party has fielded two-time sitting MLA Om Prakash Yadav.

Shastri said the BJP “has moved away from its values and is influenced by people who hold an ideology that is opposite to them”. “I did not want to contest too. But the ticket distribution is distressing. I will now see how to field people from the organisation in the polls,” he said. Shiv Kumar Mehta, another ticket aspirant from Narnaul, also resigned from the party. “I have been working for the party for 45 years. They kept ignoring me and telling me each time to prepare for the next time. The same happened this time,” Mehta said.

Vikas Pathak

Vikas Pathak is deputy associate editor with The Indian Express and writes on national politics. He has over 17 years of experience, and has worked earlier with The Hindustan Times and The Hindu, among other publications. He has covered the national BJP, some key central ministries and Parliament for years, and has covered the 2009 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and many state assembly polls. He has interviewed many Union ministers and Chief Ministers. Vikas has taught as a full-time faculty member at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai; Symbiosis International University, Pune; Jio Institute, Navi Mumbai; and as a guest professor at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. Vikas has authored a book, Contesting Nationalisms: Hinduism, Secularism and Untouchability in Colonial Punjab (Primus, 2018), which has been widely reviewed by top academic journals and leading newspapers. He did his PhD, M Phil and MA from JNU, New Delhi, was Student of the Year (2005-06) at ACJ and gold medalist from University Rajasthan College in Jaipur in graduation. He has been invited to top academic institutions like JNU, St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and IIT Delhi as a guest speaker/panellist. ... Read More

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