After state meet, BJP rules out simultaneous polls in Hry

ROHTAK: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday ruled out the possibility of simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Haryana.

After a meeting of the state working committee at Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak, BJP national general secretary and Haryana state in-charge Dr Anil Jain said both Lok Sabha and assembly elections will take place as per their scheduled time.

There have been speculations that the ruling party will go for simultaneous elections for long.

“The meetings of the party are going on for Lok Sabha polls. The BJP is going to win all 10 parliamentary seats from Haryana because people have made up their mind to re-elect Narendra Modi as their prime minister,” Jain said.

Stating that Modi’s strong will power was behind the air strikes in Pakistan after Pulwama attack, the BJP leader said they have been forced to make it an election issue because of the opposition that tried to insult the Indian Air Force by seeking proof of the strikes.

Jain said the BJP is fully prepared to fight the Lok Sabha elections and had “candidates in abundance”.

He said their list of candidates will be announced once the Election Commission announces the election schedule.

He said seniority in the party will not be a criterion while allotting tickets for elections.

Earlier, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the Saturday’s meeting was to announce ‘Panna Pramukhs’ who will each go among 50-60 voters to make them aware of the BJP government’s schemes through which they were being benefitted.

“We are confident of winning all 10 seats. Our workers will go door-to-door and make people aware of schemes of both the central and state governments,” Khattar said.

The chief minister termed his recent meeting with INLD state president Ashok Arora as “apolitical”.