In Haryana, BJP not to field immediate kin of MLAS, MPS

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided not to field the immediate relatives of sitting state legislators and parliamentarians from Haryana in next month’s assembly elections, a senior BJP leader said. Mayors of municipal corporations and chairpersons of zila parishads, too, will not get the party nomination to contest the polls.

The decision, taken at a meeting on Wednesday between party president Amit Shah and the Haryana BJP’S core group, is likely to come as a disappointment to at least six Haryana MPS who had been lobbying for their immediate relatives to be included on the party’s slate in the October 21 assembly polls. Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala were prominent among those who attended the meeting.

“This is a policy that BJP enforced in others states as well. Haryana will be no exception,” the senior leader cited in the first instance said on condition of anonymity. Fielding an immediate relative of a sitting state legislator or a member of Parliament in an election tends to cause heartburn among other aspirants, said another BJP leader in Delhi, also requesting anonymity. “There is also a risk of a certain constituency becoming a fiefdom of a few people from the same family. BJP has been against the very idea of dynastic politics.” Rajya Sabha MP Chaudhary Birender Singh could be an exception to this rule. Singh’s son Birjendra Singh successfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Hisar. Singh’s wife, Prem Lata, too, is a legislator from Uchana Kalan and is likely to be renominated.

Singh had quit the Union cabinet and offered to resign from the Rajya Sabha after his son was chosen by the BJP to contest the parliamentary election. He continues to be a member of RS.