Ex-BSF man to fire up Arjun Chautala poll fight

CHANDIGARH: Dismissed BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav, whose nomination from Varanasi by the Samajwadi Party to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi was rejected by the returning officer, will on Friday campaign in support of Arjun Chautala, the INLD candidate from

Kurukshetra

, Haryana.


On Thursday, the Supreme Court dismissed Tej Bahadur Yadav's petition challenging the returning officer's decision to reject his nomination papers for the Varanasi constituency. Senior INLD leader and Arjun's father Abhay Chautala told TOI that Tej Bahadur Yadav had confirmed he would address a rally organized by the party at Kurukshetra on Friday. Abhay said Yadav had decided to come to Kurukshetra to support the INLD because their party is committed to working for the farming and labour class.

Abhay's younger son, Arjun is facing a tough fight in Kurukshetra against BJP's Nayab Saini and Congress party's Nirmal Singh.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kurukshetra to seek votes for the BJP's Nayab Saini.

Abhay in Kurukshetra to shore up Arjun

Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala have campaigned for the Congress nominee Nirmal Singh.

Abhay, along with his family members and senior INLD leaders, has been camping in Kurukshetra for the last three weeks to seek votes for his younger son.

Twenty-six-year-old Arjun joined active politics after his estranged cousin and Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala set up a separate outfit — Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in December last year. Arjun was made incharge of the INLD student wing a few days before the Lok Sabha elections were announced.

Arjun was also actively involved in the INLD campaign in the Jind byelection held in January this year and had launched attacks against his estranged cousins Dushyant and Digvijay Chautala in his speeches there.

The INLD, which has always had a dominating position in Kurukshetra, was selected as the safest seat by Abhay to launch his son Arjun. The Kurukshetra seat, which also includes Kaithal district, has a sizeable number of Jat votes. Even Abhay had contested the 2004 parliamentary elections from Kurukshetra on an INLD ticket and was the runner-up, having lost to industrialist Naveen Jindal of the Congress.