Chandigarh, Sep 4: The BJP on Wednesday fielded Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini from the Ladwa seat and rewarded several recent entrants to the party with poll tickets as it released the first list of 67 candidates for the elections to the 90-member assembly.
Former Haryana BJP chief Om Prakash Dhankar, who is the party's national secretary, has been fielded from Badli while veteran party leader Anil Vij will seek re-election from his Ambala Cantt stronghold.
Devender Singh Babli, who switched over to the BJP from the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) a few days ago, as well as Sanjay Kablana and Shruti Choudhry, who joined the ruling party recently, will contest from the Tohana, Beri and Tosham seats, respectively.
Shruti is the daughter of senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Choudhry. Also, Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh's daughter Aarti Singh Rao will contest from Ateli.
In Karnal, which is currently represented in the Assembly by Chief Minister Saini, the BJP has fielded senior leader Jagmohan Anand who is considered close to Union Minister and former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
Senior BJP leader and ex-minister Capt Abhimanyu, Bhavya Bishnoi, the son of Kuldeep Bishnoi, and former Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal have been fielded from Narnaund, Adampur and Ratia (SC) segments, respectively.
Ambala Mayor Shakti Rani Sharma, who switched over to the ruling party from the Haryana Janchetna Party recently, will contest from Kalka while Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta will seek re-election from Panchkula.
Aseem Goel has been re-nominated by the BJP from his Ambala City Assembly seat.
Manju Hooda will enter the election fray from the Garhi Sampla-Kiloi seat, where Congress stalwart and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is the sitting MLA.
State minister Ranjit Singh Chautala has not been fielded from the Rania seat in Sirsa district. He was hopeful of being nominated to contest the election from this seat but the BJP fielded Shishpal Kamboj instead.
Ranjit had resigned as Independent MLA from Rania ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to join the BJP and fought the Hisar parliamentary seat unsuccessfully.
A few sitting legislators, including minister Sanjay Singh and former minister Sandeep Singh, have not found a mention in the first list of BJP candidates.
Former Minister Vipul Goel has been fielded from Faridabad where Narender Gupta is the sitting MLA.
Haryana Ministers Kanwar Pal, Kamal Gupta, Jai Prakash Dalal, Mahipal Dhanda, Abhe Singh Yadav and Mool Chand Sharma's names also figure in the list and they have been fielded from the segments they represent.
Another JJP rebel Ram Kumar Gautam, who also recently switched sides, has been fielded from Safidon while former BJP MP from Rohtak, Arvind Sharma will enter the fray from Gohana.
Sunil Sangwa, a former jail superintendent, who joined the BJP ahead of the polls, has been fielded from Charkhi Dadri.
The BJP is aiming for a hattrick in the Haryana Assembly polls to be held on October 1 but faces a tough challenge from a resurgent Congress which is looking to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor. Saini is the BJP's chief ministerial face for the assembly polls.
The assembly polls are scheduled to be held on October 5, and the counting of votes will take place on October 8.
