LS polls: Congress fields Hooda from Sonipat, drops Nagar from Faridabad

NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: The Congress on Sunday announced candidates for five Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, fielding former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda from Sonipat and replacing Faridabad candidate Lalit Nagar with Avtar Singh Badhana.


Nagar, who was dropped as Faridabad candidate, is said to be close to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, the sources said.

With the announcement of new list, the party has declared candidates for all ten Lok Sabha seats in Haryana besides a total of 413 candidates across the country.

In Haryana, the party also fielded former state assembly speaker Kuldeep Sharma from Karnal and Bhavya Bishnoi from Hisar Lok Sabha seats.

Bhavya is the son of Kuldeep Bishnoi and the grandson of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal.

The Congress also nominated Nirmal Singh as the party candidate from Kurukshetra, replacing Naveen Jindal, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

All 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana go to polls in the sixth phase on May 12.

Former chief minister Hooda, who will be fighting elections from Sonipat, is the party's sitting MLA from Garhi Sampla Kiloi in Rohtak district.

The Congress had announced earlier its first list of six candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Haryana. The list included sitting MP Deepender Hooda and Rajya Sabha member Kumari Selja.

Former chief minister Hooda's son Deepender Singh, who is the sitting MP, has been renominated from Rohtak. Selja will be fighting from from the Ambala (Reserved) seat.

State Congress chief Ashok Tanwar will contest from the Sirsa (Reserved) seat.

Congress Legislature Party leader Kiran Choudhary's daughter Shruti has been named from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat. She had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls unsuccessfully from this seat.

Six-time MLA Capt Ajay Singh Yadav will contest from Gurugram.

Out of the 10 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress had won only the Rohtak seat in 2014.

The filing of nominations for the Lok Sabha seats began on April 16 and will end on April 23.

The ruling BJP has already announced its candidates for the ten seats, so has the the Jannayak Janata Party-AAP alliance.

The JJP-AAP announced its candidates for all ten seats after its talks with the Congress for forging a tie-up did not fructify.