The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday named Sunil Sangwan, a former jail superintendent, in its first list of 67 candidates for the Haryana Assembly elections.
He was the superintendent of Haryana’s Sunaria jail on six of the ten occasions Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, was granted parole or furlough, The Print reported.
Singh was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment in 2017 for raping two of his women disciples at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa district. In 2021, he and four others were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder case of Ranjit Singh, a former manager of his sect.
Sangwan, the son of former Haryana minister Satpal Sangwan, will contest the polls from the Charkhi Dadri constituency.
Haryana will head for polling on October 5. The counting of votes will take place on October 8, alongside that of Jammu and Kashmir.
Resignations in the BJP
Haryana minister Ranjit Singh Chautala and MLA Lakshman Napa resigned from the BJP on Thursday, a day after they were excluded from the first candidate list, PTI reported.
Chautala, who held the energy and jails portfolios, also quit as the Cabinet minister and announced that he will contest the polls as an independent candidate.
The son of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal had won the 2019 polls from the Rania seat as an independent and extended support to the BJP. He had formally joined the Hindutva party in March.
The party fielded Shishpal Kamboj as its candidate in Rania.
Chautala had contested the recent Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket from Hisar, but lost to the Congress candidate.
“I had good relations with them [BJP],” Chautala said. “They gave me Lok Sabha ticket. But don’t know on whose advice they have acted. I will say anyone who has given them this advice has caused damage to the party.”
Napa, after quitting the Hindutva party, visited former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and announced that he will join the Congress. He represents the Ratia constituency in Fatehabad district.
The BJP has fielded former Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal from Ratia.
Former minister Karan Dev Kamboj also resigned as the chief of Haryana BJP’s Other Backward Classes Morcha after he did not make it to the list.
Karan Dev Kamboj said that he had been serving the party for years with dedication. “Perhaps the BJP does not need loyalists anymore,” PTI quoted him as saying.
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