A day after Haryana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Mohan Lal Baroli announced Chief Minister Naib Singh Saini as his candidate from Ladwa for the Assembly elections, he (Saini) on Saturday said it is the BJP parliamentary board which decides who will contest from where.
“I am an MLA from Karnal…BJP parliamentary board will decide from where I have to contest election. No person, no matter how big he is, can claim that he will contest election from a particular seat. I am the chief minister, even I cannot claim from where I will contest election,” Saini told reporters.
The chief minister was responding to a question from reporters on Baroli’s announcement of him contesting from Ladwa. During his roadshow in Karnal on Friday, Saini was asked by reporters who would be the party’s candidate from Karnal, to which he replied, “I will contest from Karnal too, why are you worried?”
When asked if he would file nomination from two seats, Saini evaded a direct answer and said, “I will contest from Karnal as well.” Meanwhile, Saini again hit out at the Congress’ Haryana Maange Hisaab campaign and accused it of spreading lies.
He also asked the Congress how many promises it fulfilled when the party was in power between 2005 and 2014. “We have fulfilled 100 per cent of our promises,” he claimed.
Saini also cautioned the people of Jammu and Kashmir against the National Conference-Congress alliance. He asked Congress leaders, including former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Hooda, to clarify their stand on the issue of restoration of Article 370 by ally National Conference (NC).
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has announced that the Haryana assembly elections will now be held on October 5 instead of October 1 in view of the festival of the Bishnoi community. The Election Commission said that the counting of votes for the Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana assembly elections will now be held on October 8 instead of October 4.
