The Congress party released its first list of 31 candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections on Friday evening, September 6. Vinesh Phogat, a newly joined party leader and former wrestler, has been fielded from the Julana constituency. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Hooda will be contesting from Garhi Sampla Kiloi. Sitting party MLA Mamman Khan has been fielded for the second time from the Ferozepur Jhirka assembly constituency.
Julana assembly seat is located in Jind district and is an important constituency dominated by rural and agricultural populations. In the 2019 assembly polls, Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidate Amarjit Dhanda won from the constituency. He defeated BJP's Parminder Singh Dhull. Congress candidate Dharmender Singh Dhull came in third position with 12,000 votes.
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The list was released after the Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) met in New Delhi on Friday. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary in charge of organisation KC Venugopal, and All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria and Hooda, among others, attended the meeting.
The Congress has fielded Mewa Singh from Ladwa to challenge Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. The party has also fielded Surender Panwar from Sonipat, Bharat Bhushan Batra from Rohtak, Kuldeep Vats from Badli, Chiranjeev Rao from Revari, and Neeraj Sharma from Faridabad NIT.
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The Congress is also engaged in seat-sharing talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)for the Haryana polls, with both sides hard-negotiating. However, the prospects of a tie-up appeared bleak on Friday, with both sides hardening their stances.
The Congress has been engaged in hectic consultations over the last few days to explore the possibility of an alliance with the AAP for the Haryana polls, even as some of its leaders have expressed reservations over a tie-up with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.