Gopal Kanda teams up with INLD-BSP combine after BJP snub; to contest from Sirsa

Former Haryana Minister Gopal Goyal Kanda.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Cast aside by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) supremo Gopal Kanda joined hands with the Indian National Lok Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance on Thursday (September 12, 2024), the last day for filing nominations for the Haryana Assembly election.

As part of the agreement between the three coalition partners, Mr. Kanda’s party would contest the Sirsa Assembly seat for which the leader filed the nomination papers.

Amid hectic political developments in the morning after an alliance between the BJP and the HLP was ruled out, INLD secretary general Abhay Singh Chautala, the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance, called on Mr. Kanda at his residence. Later, the two leaders held a joint press conference to announce the coalition.

Mr. Chautala said with the three parties coming together, their strength has “tripled” and the alliance will now win all the five seats in Sirsa. He said the alliance will form the next government in the State as the Congress has been hit by infighting and the people have “already made up their mind to oust the BJP”.

A part of the National Democratic Alliance, Mr. Kanda was hopeful of contesting the upcoming Assembly poll in coalition with the BJP and had demanded six assembly seats. The prospects of the alliance brightened after Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, during a visit to Sirsa last month, said the two parties would take their association forward and win all the seats in Sirsa.

However, the BJP, late on Wednesday (September 11, 2024), released its list for the remaining three Assembly segments in the State and fielded a candidate from Sirsa, ruling out alliance with the HLP.

Mr. Kanda’s brother, Gobind Kanda, had joined the BJP to contest the Ellenabad byelection against Mr. Chautala in 2021.

Of the five Assembly seats in Sirsa district, two were won by the Congress, and one each by INLD, HLP and an Independent in the 2019 Assembly election. The BJP had drawn a blank.