Haryana: Brows raised as Bishnois stay away from Ranjit’s campaign

Internal rift in the Hisar unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come to the fore as prominent leader Kuldeep Bishnoi and his son Bhavya Bishnoi, MLA from Adampur, are yet to join the party candidate from Hisar, Ranjit Chautala, during the canvassing.

On March 24, independent MLA from Rania Ranjit Chautala joined the BJP and hours later, the party gave him a ticket from the Hisar parliamentary seat. The other contenders, former Hisar MP Kuldeep and former finance minister Captain Abhimanyu, were upset after the party fielded Chautala from Hisar and ignored their names. Ranjit, two-time MLA, is the son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal and younger brother of former Haryana chief minister OP Chautala.

Since then, the former MP has not joined any of the BJP programmes in the district and his son had appeared for some time when chief minister Nayab Singh Saini and his predecessor Manohar Lal Khattar inaugurated the Lok Sabha office in Hisar.

On April 20, Bhavya failed to appear when Chautala visited Adampur constituency. The BJP office-bearers had carried photos of Bhavya in the posters for visits to Adampur, Modakhera, Kaliravan and other villages.

While addressing the gathering at Gopi Ram Dharmshala, Ranjit said, “No one should be under the misconception that the party can’t do without him (referring to Kuldeep).”

“I had talked to Kuldeep over the phone twice and he assured me of support. I am a friend of those who consider me a friend and vice versa. Everyone in the party is a worker. I will appraise the high command about those not taking part in the party’s programmes,” Chautala added.

After the BJP had announced Chautala as its candidate for the Hisar parliamentary seat, Bhavya had said his father’s progress was stopped because of his popularity among the masses. In a video message, Kuldeep had said he was receiving phones from workers that a ticket was denied to him. He requested party workers to support the party’s candidate to make Modi PM again.

Kuldeep had won Lok Sabha polls from Bhiwani in 2005 and Hisar in 2011. However, his father and former Haryana CM Bhajan Lal had once represented Hisar Lok Sabha.

Last month, when reporters asked Khattar about Kuldeep’s absence in Hisar after the party denied him a ticket, the former CM said, “In every family, some people get unhappy in a marriage function but other people convince them and the same will be implemented in Kuldeep’s case.”

HT ‘s calls and texts to Kuldeep and his son remained unanswered.