New Delhi:

The Congress and the BJP both face hiccups in finalising candidates for next month’s Haryana election, sources told NDTV Friday, days after the former began seat-sharing talks with the AAP, seeking a revival of the INDIA alliance that won five of 10 Lok Sabha seats in April-June.

As far as the Congress is concerned, as it was with seat-share talks with other opposition parties before the Lok Sabha election, there is disagreement between state and central leaders. Congress leaders in Haryana are unwilling to concede too many of Haryana’s 90 seats.

Differences have also emerged, sources said, over which seats the AAP can get; some of those identified by Arvind Kejriwal’s party are those to which the Congress’ influential former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda expects to nominate his loyalists.

The Congress and the AAP announced an ‘in-principle’ deal on Wednesday.

This was after Rahul Gandhi urged his party to form an alliance with the AAP to guard against the division of votes. Mr Gandhi has been clear that it will take a concerted effort by the opposition to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, whether in central or state elections.

In early exchanges the AAP wanted 10 seats but the Congress would offer five to seven only, with another likely to go to Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, another INDIA member.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Haryana the Congress contested nine seats (and won five) and left the tenth to the AAP, but Mr Kejriwal’s party failed to wrest Kurukshetra from the BJP.

Sources said the Congress has pointed to this, and that wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia will contest on its tickets, to claim it has the best chance of defeating the BJP.

BJP’s Haryana Election Issues

The BJP, meanwhile, faces internal squabbles after naming a first list of 67 candidates, with Jails Minister Ranjit Chautala and MLA Lakshman Napa quitting after being denied tickets.

Mr Chautala has said he will contest as an independent candidate, while Mr Napa met Congress leader Hooda at his residence and said he would join that party.

READ | Denied Haryana Poll Tickets, BJP Minister And MLA Quit Party

Ranjit Chautala is the son of Devi Lal Chaudhary, one of the state’s tallest and most respected political leaders, who was also twice Chief Minister and served as Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Chautala was hoping to contest from Rania – the seat he won in 2019 as an independent but quit to join the BJP and contest the Hisar Lok Sabha seat, which he lost.

The BJP fielded Shishpal Kamboj instead.

Meanwhile, Karan Dev Kamboj has resigned as chief of the BJP’s OBC Morcha state unit after also being denied a ticket. “Perhaps the BJP does not need loyalists anymore,” he said, taking a swipe at the party for giving tickets to former rival leaders who have recently joined the party.

READ | On BJP’s Haryana 1st List – Jail Officer Who Gave Ram Rahim 6 Paroles

A significant name in the BJP’s first list is former prison official Sunil Sangwan – had who granted Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Ram Rahim parole a staggering six times.

When Is Haryana Election?

The Haryana Assembly election will be held on October 5. 

The election was first scheduled for October 1 but it was deferred by the Election Commission to honour the voting rights and traditions of the Bishnoi community, for whom a festival – the centuries-old Asoj Amavasya festival in remembrance of Guru Jambeshwar – is on October 2.

READ | Haryana Poll Dates Revised To October 5, Counting 3 Days Later

The Bishnois represent a sizeable voting community in at least three districts of the state.

Therefore, results for the Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir elections – the first in the former state since 2014 – will now be announced on October 8 instead of October 4, the poll body said. 

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Chandigarh:

A day after the ruling BJP announced its first list of 67 candidates for the October 5 Haryana assembly polls, the party faced rebellion with Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala and MLA Lakshman Dass Napa who were denied tickets quitting the party.

Energy and Jails Minister Ranjit Chautala (79), son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, said he took a decision after a meeting with his supporters and will now enter the fray as an Independent.

Mr Napa quit the party after being denied ticket while former minister Karan Dev Kamboj also stepped down as state BJP’s OBC Morcha chief after party ignored his candidature.

The rebel trouble for BJP started shortly after it came out with the first list of candidates.

After quitting the party, Mr Napa met former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at his residence in the national capital and later said he will be joining the Congress along with his supporters.

Ranjit Chautala called a meeting of his supporters after the party ignored his candidature from Rania segment in Sirsa district.

“I took the decision after consulting my supporters,” he said when asked about his move.

“I had good relations with them (BJP). They gave me Lok Sabha ticket (from Hisar, which he fought unsuccessfully). 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,” Mr Chautala said.

“I am Chaudhary Devi Lal’s son. I have some stature… I have decided to contest as an Independent,” he said, while adding he has resigned as minister and quit the BJP.

Mr Chautala was hoping to contest from Rania seat but the BJP fielded Shishpal Kamboj instead. He had resigned as Independent MLA from Rania ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to join the BJP and fought the Hisar parliamentary seat unsuccessfully.

Mr Napa, sitting MLA from Ratia reserve constituency in Fatehabad district, said he served his constituency with full dedication and undertook development works. He said he does not know why the party denied him re-nomination from the assembly segment.

Mr Napa said he had met Mr Hooda Thursday morning. “I am joining the Congress,” he said. 

Former minister Karan Dev Kamboj said he has resigned as state president of Haryana BJP’s OBC Morcha and from all party posts he held.

Mr Kamboj, who was also a ticket hopeful but did not get it, said he had been serving the party over the years with dedication.

“Perhaps the BJP does not need loyalists anymore,” he said, adding the party is rewarding leaders with tickets who joined a day before while ignoring those who served it for years.

A few sitting legislators, including minister Sanjay Singh and former minister Sandeep Singh, do not figure in the first list of BJP candidates.

From Ratia, the party has fielded former Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Ms Duggal was denied re-nomination from the Sirsa parliamentary constituency after former Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, who had joined BJP ahead of the LS polls, was given the ticket.

Mr Tanwar, however, lost to Congress veteran Kumari Selja.

Former Haryana minister and senior BJP leader Kavita Jain, a ticket hopeful from Sonipat, was also  reportedly sulking after party fielded Nikhil Madan from the constituency.

Addressing her supporters in Sonipat, she turned emotional, and said she had always worked as a dedicated soldier for her party and her candidature should have been considered.

In its first list released on Wednesday, the BJP fielded Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who is the sitting MLA from Karnal, from the Ladwa seat, and rewarded several recent entrants to the party with poll tickets.

The BJP is aiming for a hat-trick in Haryana but faces tough challenge from a resurgent Congress which is looking to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor.

Mr Saini is the BJP’s chief ministerial face for the assembly polls. The counting of votes for the elections to the 90-member assembly will take place on October 8. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)