Defiant ex-Haryana BJP chief Ram Bilas Sharma files nomination from Mahendragarh

File picture of former Haryana MLA Ram Bilas Sharma.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

In a show of defiance over the delay in announcement of his candidature, former State Bharatiya Janata Party president and prominent Brahmin leader Ram Bilas Sharma on Wednesday (September 11, 2024) filed his nomination from the Mahendragarh Assembly seat. The party is yet to name its candidate for the seat.

Coming out in his support, Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh said the party had “rubbed salt on his wounds” by holding off his nomination till the eleventh hour.

Mr. Sharma told mediapersons that he had filed his nomination as a BJP candidate and was hopeful of getting the party symbol before the end of the nomination process on Thursday. Interestingly, another local leader, Kailash Chand, 59, also filed his nomination as BJP candidate on September 6 from this Assembly segment.

Mr. Sharma, a former Minister, was the State party president when the BJP formed its first full-majority government in Haryana in 2014.

The 74-year-old leader had also held a meeting of supporters on September 6 at his residence as a pressure tactic after his name did not appear in the first list of 67 party candidates on September 4.

Expressing solidarity with him, Mr. Singh said the party, if it was not willing to field him, should have made it clear earlier and appointed him as Governor, instead of making him wait for the party ticket. “He is the tallest BJP leader in Haryana,” said Mr. Singh, a prominent Ahir leader in South Haryana. Whether the party offers him ticket or not, nobody has the right to humiliate anyone, he said.

World Brahmin Federation chairman Shashi Kant said that Mr. Sharma was the “Bhishma Pitamah” of Haryana BJP and the treatment meted out to him had sent a wrong signal to the Brahmin community. This would have adverse implications for the party in the upcoming election, it added.

Amid the delay in announcement of the BJP candidate for Mahendragarh segment, a woman has given a complaint to the Director-General of Police, Haryana seeking registration of an FIR against Mr. Sharma and his son for allegedly extorting over ₹20 crore from her husband Kailash Pujari over the past two decades.

The BJP sources, however, said the timing of the complaint showed that there was a political conspiracy behind denial of ticket to Mr. Sharma.

Besides Mahendragarh, the BJP is yet to announce candidates for Faridabad NIT and Sirsa seats. Faridabad Lok Sabha member Krishan Pal is reportedly keen on his son contesting from Faridabad NIT. Haryana Lokhit Party leader Gopal Kanda, who was seeking alliance with the BJP in State, is the sitting MLA from Sirsa.