Hefting grain sacks, running tea stalls: Haryana candidates play many parts
With the Lok Sabha election campaign heating up in Haryana, which is slated to vote on May 25, politicians in the agrarian State are willing to walk the extra mile — from lifting grain sacks and running a tea stall to shaking a leg — in a bid to win over the electorate.
In a 14-second video posted on X on Wednesday, the BJP’s Kurukshetra candidate, Naveen Jindal, who is the chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd., can be seen lifting a sack of grain on his back and carefully treading on a wooden plank placed on an incline to a truck surrounded by his followers and spectators. The camera follows the 54-year-old as he nally manages to heave the sack inside the truck and turns back, panting, to greet the crowd with folded hands to loud cheers and slogans of “Naveen Jindal zindabad! (Long live Naveen Jindal!)”
Not to be left behind in the race to strike a chord
AAP leader and Kurukshetra candidate Sushil Gupta serving tea at Shahbad Mandi.
with the common man, Aam Aadmi Party Haryana president and INDIA bloc candidate Sushil Gupta posted a video on X on Thursday showing him running a tea stall in Kurukshetra’s Shahbad market. Surrounded by his supporters, Mr. Gupta, a former Rajya Sabha member, can be seen making and serving tea, with the post’s tagline reading: “Badlenge Kurukshetra, Badlenge Haryana (Will change Kurukshetra, will change Haryana)”.
Mr. Jindal quit the Congress to join the BJP just
hours before the ruling party released the list naming him as its candidate from this Lok Sabha constituency. Pitched against Mr. Jindal and Mr. Gupta, the Indian National Lok Dal secretary-general, Abhay Chautala, adds another dimension to the electoral contest for this seat.
In Hisar, the stage is set for an intra-family contest among Chautalas. The Jannayak Janta Party’s candidate Naina Chautala, mother of former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, joined a group of women dancing to folk and devotional songs in Sector 13. Ms. Chautala, the rst woman from the Chautala family to take the plunge into active politics, is credited with holding all-woman public meetings called Hari Chunari Chaupals.
She is pitted against her father-in-law’s younger brother and BJP candidate, Ranjit Singh Chautala, who resigned as an Independent MLA to join the ruling party, and her sister-in-law Sunaina Chautala, the INLD candidate. The sitting MP from Hisar, former bureaucrat Brijendra Singh, quit the BJP to join the Congress in March. The Congress is yet to announce its candidates for the State.
In Sirsa, BJP candidate Ashok Tanwar, a former Haryana Congress chief, did not miss the opportunity to visit and congratulate Komal Garg, a local girl who secured the 221st rank in the UPSC exam. Rohtak’s BJP candidate Arvind Sharma posted pictures of himself visiting a gaushala and attending weddings.