Sacked Border Security Force (BSF) constable, Tej Bahadur Yadav, will contest against Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar in the upcoming Haryana Assembly Election on October 21. Counting of votes will take place on October 24 and the results will be out on the same day.

Yadav was sacked from BSF in 2017 after he uploaded a video on social media complaining about the food served to the BSF personnel.

He will contest as the Jannayak Janta Party’s (JJP) candidate for the Karnal Assembly constituency. The JJP has also announced a list of 35 other candidates contesting under its banner.

“Me and my party’s fight is against the corruption in the country and in Haryana. I am ready to take the challenge to fight the ruling BJP, and hence the party has decided to field me against Manohar Lal Khattar,” said Yadav.

Unemployment is another issue that the youth have been facing in Haryana. We will forcefully raise the issue during the campaign and would expose the ruling BJP, he added.

Yadav hails from Mahendergarh district, Haryana. He would file his nomination on October 4.

EC rejected nomination in 2019 Lok Sabha elections

It is to be noted that Yadav had filed his nomination against Narendra Modi from Varanasi in the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate and later on Samajwadi Party’s ticket on April 24 and April 29 respectively. His nomination was rejected by the Election Commission on May 1. He approached the Supreme Court against the EC’s action.

In a column in the nomination form asking, “Whether the candidate was dismissed for corruption or for disloyalty while holding office under the Government of India or the Government of any State?”, Tej Bahadur had filled “Yes”.

In the Supreme Court, he called it an inadvertent mistake. So he filed another nomination papers on April 29, as SP’s candidate. This time he marked “No” against the column asking about his dismissal.

The EC had rejected his nomination, as under the law, a person dismissed from a government job is prohibited from contesting election for five years unless he/she obtains a no-objection certificate issued by the Election Commission of India. At the time of filing his nominations, Yadav was dismissed two years ago from the services.

Other candidates of JJP

JJP’s former MP from Hisar, Dushyant Chautala would fight against BJP’s sitting MLA Prem Lata, wife of former Union Minister Birender Singh, from the Uchana Kalana constituency. In the 2014 elections too, he contested as Indian National Lok Dal candidate but lost against Prem Lata from the same constituency.

Dushyant’s mother, Naina Chautala who is Dabwali sitting MLA has been shifted to the Badhra constituency in Charkhi Dadri district. She will take on BJP’s Sukhwinder Sheoran and Congress’s Ranbir Mahendra.

So far, the list declared by JJP includes former MLA Arjun Singh from Jagadhri and Ishwar Palaka from Shahbad. From Ellenabad, O.P. Singh is the candidate of JJP who will contest against INLD’s Abhay Chautala.

The JJP is the breakaway outfit of the INLD. It has announced to contest the election on all seats after its failed talks with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) over seat-sharing.