Ellenabad bypoll: Former Haryana minister Jagdish Nehra joins Congress

Former Haryana minister Jagdish Nehra returned to the Congress party ahead of the October 30 Ellenabad assembly bypolls.

Nehra had switched over to the BJP in 2014 but he came back to the Congress at a party workers’ meeting at Sirsa on Monday.

The meeting had been organised in support of Congress candidate for the bypoll Pawan Beniwal.

Nehra joined the Congress in the presence of state unit chief Kumari Selja, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Congress general secretary Vivek Bansal, who is party in-charge of Haryana affairs.

On the other hand, Ramesh Bhadu, who was earlier with the Congress in Sirsa district, joined the ruling BJP in the presence of Chief Minister M L Khattar.

The October 30 bypoll for the Ellenabad assembly seat in Haryana was necessitated after Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Chautala quit as the MLA in January in protest against the three central farm laws.

Chautala is in the fray again as he filed his nomination Friday.

Gobind Kanda, brother of Haryana Lokhit Party chief and legislator Gopal Kanda, had joined the BJP recently and has been fielded by the BJP-JJP combine.

Beniwal, who had unsuccessfully contested the previous assembly poll against Abhay Chautala, had recently switched over from BJP to the Congress.

Hooda on Monday again trained guns on Abhay Chautala and asked why the INLD leader entered the fray again as the very reason for which he resigned still remains unresolved.

Senior Haryana BJP leader Subhash Barala, while talking to reporters in Sirsa, also hit out at Abhay Chautala and dubbed his resignation as MLA earlier a “political drama”.

“Abhay Chautala resigned saying till the time farm laws are not rolled back he will not enter Vidhan Sabha. It is clear that he only did political drama by resigning. How will he seek votes from people now?” asked Barala.

He also said it was not for the first time that the Chautala family had “thrust” bypolls on the people of Ellenabad.

Barala reminded that in 2010 too bypoll to Ellenabad was necessitated after INLD supremo O P Chautala had vacated the seat as he had won from Uchana Kalan as well as Ellenabad in the 2009 assembly election.

“Chautala sahab had fought on two seats, he vacated Ellenabad seat, necessitating a bypoll. Have they made Ellenabad a laboratory for experiments? The people of Ellenabad are asking this question,” said Barala.

However, a few days ago, Abhay Chautala had said that he had resigned in support of the farmers after seeking views of people of his constituency.

He had said that had all 31 MLAs of the principal opposition party Congress resigned with him it would have built pressure on the BJP-led government over the farm laws issue.

Abhay Chautala had claimed that many MLAs from the ruling combine too would have been compelled to resign in solidarity with the farmers leading to the fall of the “anti-farmer” government.

“Had the Congress MLAs resigned, we would have had a mid-term poll in the state and not a bypoll,” said Chautala.

He had said farmers will make the BJP-JJP combine realise that “black farm laws are their (farmers') death warrants”.

Bypolls for the Ellenabad seat will be held on October 30 and votes will be counted on November 2.

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