Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly Elections 2019. The 90-seat state assembly is set to go to polls on October 21.
The election committee of the party held a meeting in Delhi under the chairmanship of INLD president and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, after which it announced the names. The list includes 12 women among candidates who will be contesting the polls.
Senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala is seeking re-election from his Ellenabad constituency.
INLD, formed by former deputy prime minister the late Devi Lal, has suffered a series of setbacks during the past one year after its split because of a feud in the Chautala family. Most of INLD’s sitting MLAs and prominent leaders have switched over to the BJP ahead of polls.
Party’s State unit chief B.D. Dhalia said the INLD has taken care to give representation to various sections of society and the candidates were decided accordingly.
While INLD has fielded former MLA Dilbagh Singh from Yamunanagar, its former MLA Sita Ram is in the fray from Dabwali seat, where Abhay’s sister-in-law and Jannayak Janta Party’s Naina Chautala is the sitting legislator.
The INLD saw a split in 2018 after there was a bitter power struggle between the two brothers — Ajay Chautala, who is serving a 10-year jail sentence in a teacher recruitment scam, and Abhay, who was the Leader of the Opposition in State Assembly and had been running the party since 2013.
The announcement of the list came amid other major development, the Shiromani Akali Dal announced to contest the state assembly polls in alliance with the INLD.
The SAD, which is the part of the ruling NDA at the Centre, had snapped ties with the BJP in the state after its lone MLA from Kalanwali Balkaur Singh switched to the saffron party.
In a statement here, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said party patron Parkash Singh Badal and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala would accompany Ratia and Kalanwali candidates for the filing of nomination papers.
