Regional Rivalry Gets In The Way Of BJP's Bid To Nominate Punjabi Minister To Rajya Sabha From Haryana

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) plans to send Minister of State (MoS) Ravneet Singh Bittu to Parliament through the Rajya Sabha route are facing protests from the party's Haryana unit.

Bittu has served as a Congress Member of Parliament (MP) from Ludhiana and Anandpur Sahib. He joined the BJP in March this year and fought the Lok Sabha election from Ludhiana but was defeated.

Despite the loss, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted him into his Council of Ministers. Now, to continue on in his MoS role, he needs to become a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Elections for 10 vacant Rajya Sabha seats are expected to be held soon, with two seats each from Assam, Bihar, and Maharashtra, and one each from Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Tripura.

The BJP intended to consolidate its Sikh vote bank in Haryana, ahead of the assembly election in the state, due in October this year, by sending Bittu to the Rajya Sabha.

However, state BJP leaders argued that due to longstanding issues like the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal between Punjab and Haryana, sending a Punjabi to Rajya Sabha from Haryana will do more harm than good in the election.

Apart from the water dispute, the two states also have rivalries over the common capital, Chandigarh, and a common High Court. The most recent dispute was sparked by farmers' protests.

The Punjab farmers marching towards Delhi were stopped at the Haryana border in February. Even some force was used by the Haryana government against the farmers. The borders remain closed.

Amid the growing animosity between the two states, Haryana BJP leaders have expressed their demand not to field Bittu. They have asked the central leadership to field a Sikh, if they want, but of Haryana origin.

Former Delhi Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Manjinder Singh Sirsa is one such leader. He is a Sikh and hails from Sirsa in Haryana. Other contenders in the race are former Congress leaders Kuldeep Bishnoi, Kiran Choudhry, and Shruti Choudhry.

Son of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, Bishnoi joined the BJP in 2022 but was not given a ticket to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Hence, he is being considered the frontrunner in the race.

MLA Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti joined the BJP after the Lok Sabha election over differences with former Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The mother-daughter duo is also among the frontrunners.

However, instead of relying on 'imported' leaders, if the BJP wants to choose a nominee from its own cadre, it has options like former MLA Ram Bilas Sharma and former MP Sunita Duggal.

Former Haryana ministers Captain Abhimanyu, Vipul Goyal, Manish Goyal, Om Prakash Dhankar, and Kavita Jain, as well as former MPs Ashok Tanwar and Sanjay Bhatia, are also in the race.

Notably, after the protests, BJP Haryana president Mohan Lal Badoli has denied reports of fielding Bittu for the Rajya Sabha and said nothing of this sort has been discussed within the party.

Badoli has also met senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Ministers Amit Shah and Jagat Prakash Nadda, recently. They are believed to be monitoring the party's preparation for the assembly election.

While it is unclear as of now where Bittu will be fielded for Rajya Sabha and who will be the BJP's Rajya Sabha candidate in Haryana, the opposition camp is more uncertain about fielding a candidate.

The Congress, former BJP ally Jannayak Janta Party, and Indian National Lok Dal are all reluctant to field a candidate due to their low trust in the opposition's vote consolidation.