The Jannayak Janta Party on Monday announced the names of its remaining three candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Haryana, fielding its students’ wing national president Digvijay Singh Chautala against former Congress Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Sonipat.
The announcement of the JJP candidates came hours after the Congress made public its list of candidates for five Lok Sabha constituencies in Haryana late on Sunday evening.
The party fielded Mehmood Khan, who retired as global leader of Unilever Innovation Process Development, from Gurugram and former Zila Parishad member Jai Bhagwan Sharma alias D.D. Sharma from Kurukshetra.
Mr. Khan is pitted against the BJP’s Rao Inderjit Singh and the Congress’ Capt. Ajay Yadav. His candidature, however, could harm the prospects of the Congress, which is pinning its hopes on the 5 lakh Muslim voters in the constituency.
Mr. Sharma, a three-time sarpanch of Kheri Markanda village, has been politically active since his college days. He had unsuccessfully contested the Vidhan Sabha election from Pehwa as a BJP candidate in 2014.
Mr. Chautala, a Jat, would be in a three-cornered contest with Mr. Hooda, also a Jat, and BJP’s sitting MP Ramesh Chandra Kaushik.
Lost in Jind bypoll
Mr. Chautala had lost to the BJP’s Krishan Middha in the Jind bypoll in January this year by a margin of around 12,000 votes.
Sonipat is one of the three Jat-dominated Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, besides Rohtak and Hisar.
However, with two high-profile Jat candidates in fray, the BJP, mostly eyeing non-Jats, could benefit from the division of Jat votes.