BJP bets big on sportspersons in Haryana Assembly election, names Babita Phogat, Yogeshwar Dutt, Sandeep Singh as its candidates

CHANDIGARH: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has placed its bet high on the sports celebrities for the upcoming Haryana Assembly election, scheduled to be held on October 21. Eminent sports personalities including wrestling champions Babita Phogat, Yogeshwar Dutt and former India hockey captain Sandeep Singh have been named in the first released of candidates released by the BJP on Monday.

The press release issued by the BJP said, "The Central Election Committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party met under the Presidentship of Shri Amit Shah. The meeting was attended by Shri Narendra Modi, Hon'ble Prime Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh, Minister of Defence, Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Micro. Small & Medium Enterprises and all other members of the Central Election Committee of the BJP."

The first list of BJP has named 78 candidates for the 90-member Haryana Legislative Assembly wherein award-winning athlete Babita Phogat has been given a ticket from Dadri assembly seat. Olympic medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt will contest the election from Baroda assembly seat and former India Hockey captain Sardar Sandeep Singh has been fielded from Pehowa assembly seat.

Prominent political leaders have also appeared in the list. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will contest from Karnal while state BJP president Subhash Barala is the candidate from Tohana.

Wrestling father-daughter duo Mahavir Phogat and Babita Phogat had joined the BJP on August 12 in the in the presence of working president JP Nadda and Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijuju. Babita Phogat has been a vocal supporter of the BJP. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre scrapped Article 370, which provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir, she had voiced her support on microblogging site Twitter.

On September 26, Sandeep Singh and Yogeshwar Dutt had joined the BJP in Haryana and were inducted into the saffron party in the presence of Subhash Barala, the state BJP chief in Haryana.

Speaking to media after formally joining the party, Sandeep Singh had said, ''I have joined politics as I am impressed with PM Narendra Modi. His honesty drew me to the party. Both PM and Haryana CM are doing a lot for the youth. If the party considers me capable of contesting elections then I surely will.''

On his turn, Yogeshwar Dutt had said, ''As a youth, I want to work for the nation. PM Modi abrogated Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, he achieved the impossible. I am very impressed with him. The country is happy after the abrogation of Article 370.''

Rumours were rife that all the sports personalities who were inducted into the party would be given a party ticket for the upcoming Assembly election, slated to be held on October 21.

Here is the full list released by the BJP:

Name of Legislative Assembly	Name of Candidate
Karnal	Shri Manohar Lal Khattar
Tohana	Shri Subhash Barala
Kalka	Smt. Latika Sharma
Panchkula	Shri Gyan Chand Gupta
Ambala Cantt.	Shri Anil Viz
Ambala City	Shri Ashim Goyal
Mulana (SC)	Shri Rajveer Barada
Sadhaura (SC)	Shri Balwant Singh
Jagadhri	Shri Kanwarpal Gurjar
Yamunanagar	Shri Ghanshyam Das Arora
Radaur	Shri Karndev Kamboj
Ladwa	Shri Pawan Saini
Shahbad (SC)	Shri Krishan Bedi
Thanesar	Shri Subhash Sudha
Pehowa	Sardar Sandeep Singh
Guhla (SC)	Shri Ravi Taranvali
Kalayat	Smt. Kamlesh Dhanda
Kaithal	Shri Lila Ram Gurjar
Pundri	Shri Vedpal Advocate
Nilokheri (SC)	Shri Bhagwan Das Kabirpanthi
Indri	Shri Ramkumar Kashyap
Gharaunda	Shri Harvinder Kalyan
Assandh	Sardar Bakshi Singh Virk
Panipat Rural	Shri Mahipal Dhandha
Israna (SC)	Shri Krishan Panwar
Samalkha	Shri Shashikant Kaushik
Rai	Shri Mohan Lal Kaushik Badoli
Sonipat	Smt. Kavita Jain
Gohana	Shri Tirath Singh Rana
Baroda	Shri Yogeshwar Dutt
Julana	Shri Parmender Dhul
Safidon	Shri Bachchan Singh Arya
Jind	Dr. Krishan Midda
Uchana Kalan	Smt. Prem Lala
Narwana (SC)	Smt. Santosh Danoda
Ratia (SC)	Shri Laxman Napa
Kalawali (SC)	Shri Balkaur Singh
Dabwali	Shri Aditya Devilal
Rania	Shri Ramchandra Kamboj
Sirsa	Shri Pradeep Ratusariya
Ellenabad	Shri Pawan Beniwal
Uklana (SC)	Smt. Asha Khedar
Narnaund	Capt. Abhimanyu
Hansi	Shri Vinod Bhyana
Barwala	Shri Surender Puniya
Hisar	Dr. Kamal Gupta
Nalwa	Shri Ranveer Gangva
Loharu	Shri JP Dalal
Badhra	Shri Sukhvinder Mandi
Dadri	Ms. Babita Phogat
Bhiwani	Shri Ghanshyam Sharaf
Bawani Khera (SC)	Shri Bishambhar Balmiki
Garhi Sampla-Kiloi	Shri Satish Nandal
Rohtak	Shri Manish Grover
Kalanaur (SC)	Shri Ramavtar Balmiki
Bahadurgarh	Shri Naresh Kaushik
Badli	Shri Omparkash Dhankhad
Jhajjar (SC)	Dr. Rakesh Kumar
Beri	Shri Vikram Kadyan
Ateli	Shri Sita Ram Yadav
Mahendragarh	Shri Rambilash Sharma
Narnaul	Shri Omprakash Yadav
Nangal	Chaudhry Shri Abhay Singh Yadav
Bawal (SC)	Dr. Banwari Lal
Pataudi (SC)	Shri Satya Prakash Jaravata
Badshahpur	Shri Manish Yadav
Sohna	Shri Sanjay Singh
Nuh	Zakir Hussain
Ferozepur Jhirka	Naseem Ahmed
Punahana	Kum. Nouksham Choudhary
Hathin	Praveen Dagar
Hodal (SC)	Jagdish Nayar
Prithla	Sohanpal Chhaukkar
Faridabad NIT	Nagendra Bhadana
Badkhal	Seema Tirkha
Ballabhgarh	Moolchand Sharma
Faridabad	Narender Gupta
Tigaon	Rajesh Nagar

Last date for candidates to file their nomination is October 4, and the results for Haryana Assembly election will be declared on October 24.