Haryana polls 2024 : BJP suffers ‘bankruptcy’ of leadership, says Randeep Surjewala ahead of October 5 assembly polls

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala has claimed that the BJP is suffering from a complete "bankruptcy' of leadership in poll-bound Haryana, while asserting that his party is set to repeat its 2005 performance when it bagged 67 of the 90 seats in the state.

The Congress Member of Parliament said even issues have become blurred in the polls this time and the people want to oust the BJP. "They (BJP) have not permitted any leader to be developed and this is a pan-India problem," the Congress general secretary, who is also a former Haryana minister, told news agency PTI.

The saffron party has faced a revolt in Haryana with top leaders, including ministers, quitting over tickets being allegedly distributed to ‘turncoats’for October 5 assembly polls.

The revolt was reported after the saffron party released on September 4 its first list of67 candidatesfor the elections. The party released its second list of 21 candidates onSeptember 10. Haryana has 90 assembly seats.

"They are killing established leadership of the BJP. What they have done in Rajasthan, got reflected in the Lok Sabha results, that people don't accept novices," he said.

Surjewala asserted that the Congress party was on course to sweep the elections...we are repeating or even bettering our 2005 performance.

“We just need to hold the election here. Elections is now for the Congress to take,” said Surjewala.

The Congress is contesting 89 of the 90 seats, leaving Bhiwani for the CPI(M) to contest.

Aditya Surjewala's first election

The 57-year-old MP's son Aditya Surjewala (25) is also contesting his first election as a Congress party candidate from Kaithal, a seat represented in the outgoing Assembly by BJP's Leela Ram (63), who is seeking to get re-elected.

Aditya Surjewala, grandson of veteran Congress leader, late Shamsher Singh Surjewala, is a commerce graduate from the University of British Columbia, and the third-generation politician in the family. The junior Surjewala says he is receiving a lot of love and blessings from people of Kaithal, who, he says, are family to him.

Randeep Surjewala, currently a Rajya Sabha MP, has represented the Kaithal constituency twice in the past and lost narrowly to Leela Ram in 2019.