Former Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala and his brother Digvijay Singh Chautala will contest the forthcoming Assembly polls in Haryana as per a first list of 15 candidates announced by the party on Wednesday. While Dushyant will again contest from Uchana in the Jind district, Digvijay is in the poll fray from Dabwali constituency in the Sirsa district. JJP sources hinted that Dushyant and Digivijay’s mother and sitting Bhadra MLA Naina Chautala — one of the three MLAs remaining with the JJP after the other seven moved to different parties — is unlikely to contest the polls. The Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), which is contesting the Haryana polls for the first time, and is an ally of the JJP, aannounced four candidates: Ashok Kashyap (Jagadhari); Sohel (Sadhaura); Vinesh Gurjar (Sohna) and Harit Bainsla (Palwal). Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar Azad, who founded the Aazad Samaj Party (ASP), is seeking to find a foothold for his party beyond Uttar Pradesh. In the 2019 Assembly elections, Dushyant had defeated former Union minister Birender Singh's wife Prem Lata, then the BJP candidate, in Uchana. Birender Singh is now in the Congress and the party is likely to field his son Brijendra Singh, a former Hisar MP, in the constituency this time around. In Dabwali, from where Dushyant has been fielded, there could potentially be a contest among members of the Chautala clan. In 2019, the BJP fielded Dushyant's uncle Aditya Devi Lal from the seat, but he had lost to the Congress's Amit Sihag. Sihag's father Dr K V Singh is the uncle of Ajay Chautala, who is Digvijay and Dushyant's father. The Congress and the BJP are looking to repeat their candidates in Dabwali, sources said. The JJP has repeated Amarjeet Dhanda, who is the only remaning non-Chautala JJP MLA, from Julana and has given a ticket to Rajdeep Phogat in Dadri. Phogat was elected from Dadri on an Indian National Lok Dal ticket in 2019 and was among the four INLD legislators who joined the JJP in 2018 after their party’s split. The other 11 JJP candidates who have been given tickets are Dr Ravinder Dheen (Mulana); Rajkumar Bubka (Radaur); Krishan Bajigar (Guhla); Kuldeep Malik (Gohana); Engineer Dharampal Prajapat (Jind); Virender Chaudhary (Nalwa); Rajesh Bhardwaj (Tosham); Sunil Dujana Sarpanch (Beri); Aayushi Abhimanyu Rao (Ateli); Rameshwar Dyal (Bawal) and Satvir Tanwar (Hodel). Among those fielded by Azad's party, only Sohna candidate Vinesh Gurjar, 39, is a known face. And happens to be the senior state vice-president of the JJP. Gurjar told The Indian Express that the JJP and the ASP have fielded him for the poll battle this time based on “mutual understanding”. Sr No Candidate Name Constituency Party 1 Dushyant Chautala Uchana JJP 2 Digvijay Singh Dabwal JJP 3 Amarjeet Dhanda Julana JJP 4 Rajdeep Phogat Dadri JJP 5 Dr Ravinder Dheen Mulana JJP 6 Rajkumar Bubka Radaur JJP 7 Krishan Bajigar Guhla JJP 8 Kuldeep Malik Gohana JJP 9 Engineer Dharampal Prajapat Jind JJP 10 Virender Chaudhary Nalwa JJP 11 Rajesh Bhardwaj Tosham JJP 12 Sunil Dujana Sarpanch Beri JJP 13 Aayushi Abhimanyu Rao Ateli JJP 14 Rameshwar Dyal Bawal JJP 15 Satvir Tanwar Hodel JJP 16 Ashok Kashyap Jagadhari ASP 17 Sohel Sadhaura ASP 18 Vinesh Gurjar Sohna ASP 19 Harit Bainsla Palwal ASP In 202019, the JJP had won 10 of the 87 seats it contested and secured 14.9% of the vote share. It formed a post-poll alliance with the BJP, which had got 40 seats and fell short of a majority. In March, the BJP ended its alliance with the JJP. Since then, seven of its MLAs have resigned from the party and joined either the Congress or the BJP. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the JJP managed to just get 0.87% of the votes despite contesting all the 10 parliamentary constituencies in Haryana. All its candidates lost their security deposits.
