"Will Contest From Karnal Also": Nayab Saini After BJP Fixes Seat For Him

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini will contest the upcoming Haryana Assembly polls from Ladwa in Kurukshetra district, state BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli said on Friday.

However, on the sidelines of his roadshow in Karnal in the evening, when reporters asked Mr Saini who will be the BJP candidate from Karnal, the chief minister said, "I will contest the election from Karnal also, why are you worried?" Asked if he will file nominations from two seats, Mr Saini evaded a direct reply, saying, "I will fight the election from Karnal." The ruling BJP is expected to release its first list of candidates for the October 1 polls by Sunday.

Earlier in the day, asked from where Mr Saini would contest the election, Mr Badoli said, "The chief minister will be fielded from Ladwa." Mr Saini, who represents Karnal in the Haryana Assembly, was the member of Parliament from Kurukshetra between 2019 and 2024.

Talking to reporters in Delhi, Mr Badoli did not divulge if Saini would also contest the election from Karnal.

The Ladwa Assembly seat is currently held by the Congress's Mewa Singh.

When reporters in Karnal asked Mr Saini whether he will contest the upcoming polls from Ladwa, the chief minister quipped, "Who said so?" When he was told that Mr Badoli has said so, the chief minister asked, "When did he say this?" As reporters told him that Mr Badoli has said he will fight the election from Ladwa, Mr Saini said, "He is the state BJP chief. He has more information than me." The chief minister clarified that the final decision on the candidates will be taken by the party's central leadership.

The BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) met in Delhi on Thursday to finalise the candidates for the polls in Haryana, where the saffron party is eyeing a third consecutive term.

Mr Badoli, the MLA from Rai in Sonipat, also said he would not contest the election.

After another round of meetings, the first list of candidates is expected to be out soon, he added.

Mr Badoli said there has been no discussion regarding stitching up an alliance with any other political party and asserted that the BJP would form the government with a clear majority.

Mr Badoli, who took charge of the Haryana BJP in July, said discussions were held at the CEC meeting on the names of candidates from all seats and added that another meeting would take place in two days.

In March, the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the Haryana chief minister with Mr Saini, an Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader. Mr Khattar, who won the Lok Sabha polls from Karnal, is a Union minister now.

At the time of replacing Mr Khattar, Mr Saini was the Haryana BJP chief and the party's MP from Kurukshetra. He subsequently won the bypoll from the Karnal Assembly seat vacated by Mr Khattar.

Mr Saini had won the Assembly polls from the Naraingarh seat in Ambala district when BJP stormed to power in Haryana in 2014.

The 90-member Haryana Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on October 1 and the counting of votes will be taken up on October 4. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)