Will float new party for 2019 polls, field candidates: Saini
Says will fight against discrimination meted out to backward communities
KARNAL: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rebel, Raj Kumar Saini, who is an MP from Kurukshetra, on Sunday said he will float a new party and field his own candidates on all Lok Sabha and assembly seats in Haryana in the upcoming elections.
“We have already set up a committee to look into the demands of formation of a political party. The new party will be announced soon,” Saini, who has already formed a front ‘Loktantra Suraksha Manch’, said, while addressing a gathering of his supporters in Karnal.
He, however, countered questions on why he had not resigned as a BJP MP yet by saying, “I am still with the BJP, but the ball is in party’s court.”
Taking a dig at CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s road shows being organised in different districts, Saini said, “If those in the government will hold road shows and work like leaders of opposition, what will the Opposition do?” Saini remarked.
On why he was forming a party, he said,“we are fighting against the discrimination meted out to people of backward communities by the successive governments in Haryana. The backward communities were not given their share, despite constituting almost 50% of the state’s population.”
“Even the present BJP government in the state is working under pressure and provided reservation to Jats, though the decision was suspended by the Punjab and Haryana HC,” he added.
He, while commenting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, “This country had never got a PM like Modi ever. Though he managed to strengthen the infrastructure in India, there was no change in the condition of Dalits and backward communities.”
AN OPEN CRITIC
The first-time MP had been an open critic of reservation to Jat community and criticised the BJP government in the state over its decision to withdraw the cases registered against Jats for violence.
In November last year, he had organised a ‘Sammanta Maharally’ at Jat-dominated Jind and formed a 31-member panel to look into the demands raised by people there. Though six months have passed, neither did he float a new party, nor resigned from the BJP.