Today in Politics: As leaders leave over tickets, what will Haryana BJP’s next move be?

In an interview with The Indian Express’s Vikas Pathak, Kamboj said: “The tickets for the coming Assembly elections have been distributed wrongly. They have given tickets to rebels who stabbed the party in the back in the past.”

The party’s former state president, veteran leader and four-time Mahendragarh MLA Rambilas Sharma called a meeting of his supporters in Mahendragarh on Friday. Sharma expressed unhappiness at not being named in the first list.

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

Amidst this, the Congress on Friday inducted wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat into the party and the latter was given a ticket from Bulana.

The BJP is treading carefully on the matter of the wrestlers joining the Congress, aware that any criticism of the two could prove costly for the party so close to the Haryana Assembly elections.

The BJP has hit out at the Congress and even said the latter orchestrated the protests against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan. However, a BJP leader from Haryana said that they did not apprehend Phogat’s entry into the Congress to cause them any serious harm given the damage already caused to the party in the state due to the farm agitation and wrestlers’ protests.

In fact, the leader said, people might not take kindly to Phogat’s decision to plunge into politics so soon after she had been celebrated as a national hero for the way in which she had been denied an Olympic medal. But that didn’t mean that those people would vote for the BJP, the leader admitted.

One thing is for sure: the wrestlers’ joining could act as a shot in the arm for the Congress, which is already presently itself as an alternative to over 10 years of BJP rule in Haryana.

How the BJP will navigate the situation in the coming days will be closely tracked.

BJP steps up Jammu campaign

After releasing the party’s manifesto, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will continue the BJP’s campaign on Friday. Shah will address a meeting of party workers at 11 am at the Manhas Biradari Ground Jammu’s Paloura.

The BJP on Friday released its manifesto for the elections, providing 25 guarantees that include issuing a white paper to ensure accountability for acts of terrorism, besides restoring 100 “ruined temples” in Kashmir and announcing several sops for students, the youth, farmers, and women.

Among the BJP’s promises for the people of J&K are laptops, tablets, and Rs 3,000 annual travel allowance for students; five lakh jobs for the youth; a 50% reduction in electricity tariff rates for the agriculture sector and Rs 10,000 to farmers under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi; Rs 18,000 annually to the eldest lady in each family under the “Ma Samman Yojana”; an enhanced honorarium for village defence guards; additional 1,000 new seats in medical colleges; completion of all important tunnel projects; construction of 10,000 km of new rural roads; and metro services in Jammu and Srinagar.

Shah also promised a “very detailed’’ scheme for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits. Pointing out that many Kashmiri Pandits and people from the Sikh community who left Kashmir at the peak of militancy were forced to sell their property in distress, Shah said, “We have already started working in this regard by either returning their properties or providing the amount for their properties.”

—- With PTI inputs