The Haryana unit of ruling BJP on Wednesday dared Congress to declare Kumari Selja as its chief ministerial candidate for the state assembly polls, to prove how committed it is to the well-being of the SC community. The state BJP also said they nominate Nayab Singh Saini, who belongs to the OBC category, a chief minister. Saini is also the BJP’s chief ministerial face for the upcoming assembly elections, scheculed for October 1.
“The BJP has already nominated a chief minister from the backward class. Rahul Gandhi claims to strongly support the SC community. Let them (Congress) declare Selja ji as the chief ministerial candidate from Haryana so that one can know how much of a well-wisher of the (SC) community they are,” Haryana BJP posted on X in Hindi.
Notably, Selja, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Sirsa, is a prominent Dalit face of the Congress.Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is considered as Selja’s bete noire, had recently asserted that he is “neither tired, nor retired” but said the Congress high command will take a call on who would be the chief minister after getting a majority in the assembly elections.
Months after winning the Lok Sabha polls from Sirsa, the former Union minister Selja had also indicated her desire to contest the upcoming assembly elections and said she wishes to work in the state but the high command will take a final call on the matter.
Meanwhile, reacting to BJP’s post on X, Haryana Congress president Udai Bhan told PTI over phone that the ruling party should worry about itself as its government in the state was on its way out.
Speaking about selection of the chief ministerial candidate, Bhan said Congress MLAs and the party high command will take a call on who would serve as the chief minister only after the poll results are out.
He also said that the party had earlier nominated leaders from the Dalit community as chief ministers in four states, including Punjab and Maharashtra.
“The BJP should tell whom they have made a CM from the SC community. Moreover, they should tell if they declared Bhajan Lal Sharma as CM candidate when they fought the last assembly elections in Rajasthan. Did they fight the polls (in MP) on Mohan Yadav’s face. In Haryana, did they fight polls in 2014 with Manohar Lal Khattar as their face?,” Bhan asked.
He further said that Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly Tika Ram Jully come from the Dalit community.
Bhan said, “One thing is clear: the BJP has accepted that Congress is coming to power in Haryana…”
“That is why they are coming up with excuse of string of holidays falling around the polling date of October 1 and writing to Election Commission to defer the polls by some days… We are saying even if polling is held even before October 1, we have no objection and we are ready,” he added.
The Haryana BJP had last week written to the Election Commission requesting a brief postponement of the Assembly polls slated for October 1, citing holidays before and after the election date that could lead to lower voter turnout.