There is a rise of sons of veteran leaders and scions political families in Haryana Assembly polls with several of them contesting the polls on the tickets of the two main parties--BJP and the Congress.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala's son Aditya Surjewala will be making his electoral debut from Kaithal while former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal's grandson and cricket administrator-turned-politician Anirudh Chaudhary has been fielded from Tosham.
Rewari MLA Chiranjeev Rao, who has been fielded again, is the son of senior party leader and former state minister Ajay Singh Yadav. Brijendra Singh, the son of former Union minister Birender Singh, is set to take on former deputy chief minister and sitting JJP MLA Dushyant Chautala from Uchana Kalan in Jind district. Brijendra Singh, a former IAS officer, is also a former MP but that was from the ticket of the BJP. Both father and son joined Congress from the saffron party early this year
Chander Mohan, the elder son of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal has been fielded by the Congress from Panchkula. Also, Hisar MP Jai Prakash's son Vikas has been fielded from Kalayat.
However, the party dashed the hopes of those MPs harbouring a desire to contest the polls. Congress MP Kumari Selja had expressed her desire to contest the assembly elections and return to state politics. Also, there were reports that Randeep Surjewala was also interested in contesting the polls. Congress, however, had made its intentions clear early, declaring that no MP would be given permission to contest.
With the candidates announced for all seats, the Congress ended up having a tie-up with the CPI (M) alone. The party had engaged in seat-sharing talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the Haryana polls which hit a deadlock following hard bargaining from both sides. Some Congress leaders had expressed reservations over a tie-up with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.
While Rahul Gandhi is understood to have nudged the state unit to explore possibilities for a tie-up with the AAP, sources said former chief minister Bhupinder Hooda and his supporters were against giving much importance to the AAP and are confident of a good performance by the party going solo. Hooda, the leader of opposition in the outgoing assembly, is contesting from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi. His son Deepender Singh Hooda is an MP from Rohtak and is one of the leading faces of the party's campaign along with other senior leaders.