Cong sticks to ‘no MPs’ rule but okays ‘son rise’

New Delhi: The Congress stuck to its plans for the Haryana Assembly polls by not fielding any of its MPs despite some of them harbouring such aspirations but assuaged ambitions by giving the nod for entering the electoral fray to several sons and relatives of the party’s top leaders in the state.

After hectic parleys and much back and forth with the INDIA bloc allies, the Congress also ended up going into the polls with its original plan of largely going solo.

The party raced against time to name the candidates for the Haryana Assembly polls with its final list coming out just hours before the deadline for filing nominations for the polls to the 90-member Assembly.

The Congress’ candidates lists saw the ‘son rise’ of many political families in the state. While party MP Randeep Surjewala’s son Aditya Surjewala has been fielded from Kaithal, former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal’s grandson and cricket administrator-turned-politician Anirudh Chaudhary has been fielded from Tosham.

Rewari MLA Chiranjeev Rao, who has been fielded again, is the son of senior party leader and former state minister Ajay Singh Yadav.

Brijendra Singh, the son of former Union minister Birender Singh, is set to take on former deputy chief minister and sitting JJP MLA Dushyant Chautala from Uchana Kalan in Jind district. Brijendra Singh is a former MP.

Chander Mohan, the elder son of former Haryana chief minister Bhajanlal Bishnoi, has been fielded by the Congress from Panchkula. Also, Hisar MP Jai Prakash’s son Vikas has been fielded from Kalayat. However, the party dashed the hopes of those MPs harbouring a desire to contest the polls. Congress MP Kumari Selja had expressed her desire to contest the assembly elections and return to state politics. Also, there were reports that Randeep Surjewala was also interested in contesting the polls.