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Disquiet in BJP over candidates shows up at JP Nadda public meet

Rewari: A public meeting by BJP working president JP Nadda failed to draw a big crowd in Rewari on Friday. BJP functionaries attributed the thin turnout to infighting and discontent over the selection of the local candidate, Sunil Musepur.

A day before the meeting, Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh and BJP state vice-president Arvind Yadav had sparred over the choice of candidate.

Inderjit had lobbied hard for his daughter Aarti to be named from Rewari. When the party did not do so, he urged senior functionaries to field one of his loyalists, a source said.

The resentment, however, was palpable as there were hardly 500 people at the meeting. Yadav, who was conspicuous by his absence, said a majority of those present had been brought from neighbouring Gurgaon and Badli. “95% of voters in Rewari don’t know who Sunil Musepur is. When party workers questioned Rao Inderjit over his choice of candidate, he got annoyed and walked out of the meeting. Also, it was not prudent to hold the meeting in a small wedding venue. The turnout proves workers are unhappy with Rao Inderjit,” Yadav told TOI.

Inderjit, who is believed to have had his say in the distribution of tickets in south Haryana, did not mention chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar even once during his speech. Calling Rewari the “Paris of Ahirwal”, he told the rally , “Forty years of my efforts and 60 years of the work done by BJP will go waste even if we win all the seats in south Haryana but lose Rewari. Think about the consequences that we will have to face if we lose this seat. Those like Randhir Singh Kapriwas (sitting MLA who is contesting as an Independent) are fake BJP members. Our fight is with nobody else but with Captain (Ajay Yadav of Congress, a six-time MLA from here and whose son is contesting this time). One fish can spoil the entire pond.”

Nadda spoke about the need to instill discipline among the party rank and file. He also tried to win over the electorate by listing out the measures taken by his party in regard to the armed forces, keeping in mind that Rewari sends a large number of its residents to the defence forces.

“BJP is a party of disciple and no indiscipline will be tolerated. Whoever has gone from the party, their career has been finished. This government has given this nation the One Rank One Pension scheme. Now, we have the Rafale jet, we have abrogated Article 370, abolished triple talaq and given AIIMS to Rewari.

On the other hand, Congress is going and meeting leaders like Corbyn and discussing Kashmir. Rahul baba needs to provide an answer to the public,” Nadda said.

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