Haryana: Sacked BSF soldier joins Chautala's JJP

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will be up against a ‘peculiar’ rival on his home turf in Karnal for the ensuing Assembly elections in the state.

Tej Bahadur Yadav, 43, who was dismissed from the Border Security Force (BSF) in 2017 after he circulated a video accusing the security force of serving poor-quality food to soldiers, on Sunday joined the Janata Jananayak Party (JJP).

The JJP announced him as the official party nominee from Karnal from where Khattar will be filing his nomination to seek another term in office.

In the recently held Lok Sabha polls, Tej Bhadur had filed his nomination papers from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, his nomination was rejected by the Election Commission following which he was ruled out from the contest.

The former BSF soldier told DH on Sunday said that his fight is against corruption and he hoped to see the JJP in command in the Assembly elections.

Tej Bahadur, a native of Mahindergarh in Haryana, has been trying to make inroads into politics for some time now. After he expressed his keenness to contest the Assembly elections in Jatland, he had maintained that there are many political parties in touch with him.

Political experts, however, do not see Tej Bahadur as any major challenge to Khattar, who it appears remains firmly footed. But, his contest against the chief minister has added some spice to the contest given Tej Bahadur’s freewheeling, at times arguably unbridled, statements against his rivals.

The former soldier has challenged his termination in the court. He had uploaded videos on social media in 2017 grumbling about the poor quality of food being served to the soldiers serving at the border in J&K.
He was later dismissed by the BSF. The government has informed the court that videos he posted "could have led to a mutiny among the armed forces".

The JJP is a breakaway faction of the INLD led by father-son Chautala duo: Ajay and Dushyant. The outfit was formed post a split in the Chautala family following a family feud.