Seat-sharing plan shows Raj Kumar Saini has eyes on CM post

KURUKHETRA:

Raj Kumar Saini

, the outgoing

Kurukshetra

MP and supremo of Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP), likens himself to the hero of the movie ‘Nayak’ — the Anil Kapoor-starrer in which a “common man” is challenged by the CM to run the state for a day and his governance is such a success that people force him to join politics.


That is fiction. In real life, Saini is not a common man and has served as an MLA and a minister of state between 1997 and 2000, and politics is all about caste, seat equations, and allies. Perhaps that is why when LSP came in fourth in the January 28 byelection from Jind assembly seat, the infighting-hit Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) — which came in last among major parties — lost its alliance with Mayawatiled Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to Saini’s outfit.

Having parted ways with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on a bitter note, Saini — one of the most vocal opposers of Jats’ demand for reservation in Haryana — formed the LSP at a rally in Panipat on September 1, 2018. In the upcoming

Lok Sabha

polls, his party will be contesting two seats in Haryana, while BSP will fight remaining eight in the state.

Saini’s party is the second new political outfit of Haryana which outdid the INLD in Jind. While former CM Om Prakash Chautala’s party could get only 3,454 votes, the LSP came in fourth with 13,582 votes.

On how he plans to take on the Congress and the BJP, Saini says he will expose them, but does not divulge any further plans. “We are running a day-night campaign to tell people the truth behind the lies of Rs 72,000 per year promised by the Congress and Rs 6,000 to farmers by the BJP.”
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