Congress names candidates for 8 Haryana LS seats, fields Kumari Selja, Deepender Hooda

The Congress on Thursday night, 25 April announced its candidates for eight of the nine Lok Sabha seats it is contesting in Haryana, fielding former Union minister Kumari Selja from Sirsa and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda from Rohtak.

Selja will take on her former colleague and BJP candidate Ashok Tanwar in the Sirsa-SC Lok Sabha constituency. Both Selja and Tanwar are former Haryana Congress chiefs, and a keen contest is on the cards for the seat.

Selja has represented the Sirsa-SC constituency earlier as well. She is currently the Congress' general secretary and in-charge of the party's Uttarakhand affairs.

Party sources said that 400 aspirants had applied for Congress tickets in the state.

The party's Haryana youth wing president Divanshu Budhiraja has been fielded from the Karnal seat and will take on former state chief minister and BJP candidate Manohar Lal Khattar from the prestigious constituency.

The Congress has fielded former MP Jai Prakash from the Hisar constituency, denying the ticket to Brijendra Singh, who represented the seat as a BJP MP and switched sides a few days ago. Brijendra Singh is the son of former Union minister Birender Singh, who also rejoined the Congress after being in the BJP for a decade.

Deepender Hooda, son of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, will take on Arvind Sharma of the BJP from the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat. Deepender Hooda has represented the Rohtak parliamentary constituency three times in the past.

The Congress fielded Satpal Brahmachari from the Sonipat parliamentary constituency and Mahendra Pratap from Faridabad.

Two sitting MLAs have also found place in the party's list -- Varun Choudhary from the Ambala-SC seat and former Haryana minister Rao Dan Singh from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh.

Varun Choudhary is the son of former state Congress chief Phool Chand Mullana.

Former MP from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Shruti Choudhary, daughter of senior Congress leader and MLA Kiran Choudhary, did not feature in this list. The party nominated B S Hooda-loyalist Rao Dan Singh instead from the seat.

The Congress is contesting nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. The Aam Aadmi Party, a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, will contest the Kurukshetra seat.

The Congress is yet to announce its candidate for the Gurugram constituency.

Several loyalists of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh have found mention in the list.

The Congress had come under attack from rival parties, including the ruling BJP, over the alleged delay in announcing the names of candidates for Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and some other rival outfit leaders had accused the Congress of running away from the contest for fear of defeat. Some rival leaders had also alleged that the Congress was not being able to come out with names of candidates due to infighting in its Haryana unit.

The ruling BJP named its candidates for six Lok Sabha seats in Haryana on 13 March, three days before general elections were announced. The party named its remaining four candidates for the state on 24 March.

Voting in Haryana will be held in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election on 25 May and notification for the polls will be issued on 29 April.