Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Thursday met senior party leader and former Member of Parliament (MP) Kuldeep Bishnoi and his son Bhavya Bishnoi at their residence in New Delhi. After the meeting, Saini said there was a discussion on the Hisar Lok Sabha seat. Here, BJP has fielded Ranjit Singh Chautala who recently joined the party.

After meeting the Chief Minister, BJP leader Kuldeep Bishnoi refuted reports that he was upset over being denied a Lok Sabha ticket from Hisar and asserted that he will put in his best efforts to ensure the party’s victory in all 10 seats in the state.

Bishnoi, who has a stronghold in some pockets of the Hisar Lok Sabha seat, especially in the Adampur Assembly constituency represented by his son Bhavya, was staying away from the election campaign as the party did not give ticket to son Bhavya ignoring the legacy of his grandfather and former chief minister late Bhajan Lal.

Talking to reporters after the meeting over breakfast, Saini said Kuldeep Bishnoi’s joining the BJP had strengthened the party. Bishnoi had joined the BJP nearly two years ago. His wife Renuka, a former MLA, and son Bhavya had also switched from the Congress to the BJP. “I had come to meet him over breakfast. We will win all 10 seats and Haryana will play an important role in making Modi the Prime Minister once again. In this, Kuldeep Bishnoi will also play a big role,” the CM said.

Later, Kuldeep Bishnoi said, “There’s no resentment; the Chief Minister didn’t come to persuade me. We will campaign for party candidates in Hisar Lok Sabha seat and other constituencies”. He said that people don’t take Congress seriously as the party has no future.

Bishnoi said that he will attend the BJP rally of party candidate Ranjit Singh Chautala in Adampur on April 29. On the Congress yet to declare its candidates for nine Lok Sabha seats, Bishnoi said, “There are no takers for Congress tickets. Their leaders know they are going to lose.”

Asked about his supporters expressing anger after the BJP did not field him from Hisar, Bishnoi said, “They have feelings... if a leader does not get a ticket, it is human nature that he will be disappointed. But that does not turn into opposition. “Through the media, I appeal to all workers that now is the time when we have to work hard and strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Modi. We have to ensure that the BJP retains power at the Centre,” Bishnoi added.”

Education, health, employment, L&O have never been BJP's priority, alleges Bhupinder Hooda

Hitting out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday said that education, health, employment, law and order, electricity, water and welfare schemes have never been the priorities of BJP.  “The latest report on the condition of educational institutions in the state has exposed the anti-education face of BJP. The report reveals that more than 26,000 posts of teachers are lying vacant in schools, and 4738 posts of assistant professors in colleges,” the senior Congress leader added.

“Forget setting up any new schools and colleges, this government could not even provide teachers and other staff in the already established institutions. There is a shortage of 8240 classrooms in the schools of the state. Despite being reprimanded by the High Court, the government did not take any steps to improve the education sector,” he alleged.

Hooda said the number of dropout students in government schools is continuously increasing. “Within just one year, 4,64,000 students left government schools. In colleges too, about 1 lakh under-graduate and 19,000 post-graduate seats are lying vacant. These figures are a loud testimony that the government is pushing the youth on the path of drugs, crime and migration instead of education. The education policy of the current government is not able to inspire hope for a secure future among the youth,” he said.

“During its tenure, this government has closed about 5000 schools in the name of merger. It seems now it is now the turn of colleges and universities,” he added.

“The former Chief Minister publicly announced from the stage that after closing the schools, some other work will be started there, but let us tell this government that these schools and colleges are not the property of BJP,” he pointed out.

“These educational institutions have been established through years of hard work, people's hard-earned taxes, donations from villages and efforts of various governments. These schools have produced students who will give direction to the future of Haryana. The public will not tolerate the mindset that intends to lock the temples of education. This time BJP will be taught a lesson through the power of vote. This time the public will work to oust BJP from power in the elections,” he said.