Haryana Lok Sabha polls: From under-matric to PhD holders, all in poll fray

With the process of filing nominations ending in Haryana, the constituencies are abuzz with curious conversations about the background of the candidates, who range from Class 10 drop-outs to PhD holders.

The INDIA bloc is contesting on ten seats--Congress on nine and AAP’s Sushil Gupta from Kurukshetra, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and their erstwhile coalition partner Jannayak Janata Party on ten seats each and INLD on seven seats.

As per the election affidavit assessed by HT, as many as three Class 10 pass outs--INLD (two), BJP (one); two BA dropouts (both Congress); one diploma holder (INLD); 21 graduates --JJP (seven), Congress plus AAP(five), BJP (five) and INLD (four); six post-graduates--BJP (three), Congress (two), JJP (one); MPhil--Congress (one), PhD-- BJP (one) and JJP (one) are in the fray.

BJP nominee from Rohtak, Arvind Sharma holds a master’s in dental surgery.

According to the affidavit, JJP candidate from Gurgaon Rahul Yadav, alias Fazalpuria, a famous Bollywood singer, is a Class 9 pass-out and Congress candidates from Hisar Jai Parkash and Faridabad nominee Mahender Pratap Singh are BA second-year pass outs and they were unable to complete their graduation.

Class 10 pass out includes INLD’s Kurukshetra candidate Abhay Chautala, Gurgaon’s INLD candidate Sorab Khan and BJP’s Sonepat candidate Mohan Lal Kaushik, read the affidavit.

INLD candidate from Sirsa, Sandeep Lot has done diploma in civil engineering.

The three most educated candidates are- BJP’s Ashok Tanwar, who holds a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU), who is pitted against Congress’s Kumari Selja, who had done MPhil in English from Panjab University, Chandigarh. Ambala JJP candidate Kiran Punia, a professor at Ambala college, had completed her PhD from Sunrise University, Alwar, Rajasthan.

Congress candidate from Rohtak, Deepender Hooda and BJP’s Kurukshetra nominee Naveen Jindal had completed their MBA from the United States of America (USA). Karnal Congress Lok Sabha candidate Divyanshu Budhiraja has a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering and his opponent, former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has done bachelor of arts from Delhi University.

As per the affidavit, BJP’s Faridabad and Gurugram candidates- Krishan Pal and Rao Inderjit have done LLB. The Saffron party candidate from Hisar Ranjit Chautala has graduated from Panjab University and the Congress candidate from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh Rao Dan Singh holds an MA degree from Panjab University and an MBA from Rajasthan University, Jaipur.

Naina Chautala of the JJP and INLD’s Sunaina have completed their bachelor of arts from Kurukshetra University. Actor Raj Babbar, who is fighting on the Congress ticket from Gurgaon, has done his graduation from the National School of Drama and party’s Sonepat candidate Satpal Brahamchari has a bachelor’s degree in Sanskrit from Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi.