Agencies
The political temperature is soaring high in Haryana as the BJP, which is attempting to woo Dalit voters in the state, and the former state CM and now Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar has asked Dalit leader Kumari Selja to join the saffron party. But Selja has rebuffed Khattar and took potshots at the BJP and said she was a committed Congress worker and strongly dismissed speculation about any discontent within the party. However, the Sirsa MP did not hide her displeasure with her own party leadership over ignoring her advice and suggestions during the candidate selection process, and the preference bête noire former CM Bhupinder Hooda gets from them. Khattar seems to have become the latest headache for the Haryana BJP and his absence from PM Modi's rallies in Sonepat and Kurukshetra on September 14, with state BJP leaders conceding that Khattar is being kept away because of the negativity associated with him. Ironically, the party is going to the polls on the strength of “No parchi, no kharchi” (no cash for jobs) and good governance principles propounded during Khattar's tenure as Haryana's first BJP CM. To deal with anti-incumbency, the BJP replaced Khattar with its OBC face, Nayab Singh Saini, as the CM on March 12, to cash in on the over 30 percent OBC votes in the state. Saini is also the Chief-Ministerial face of the party for the upcoming elections.
