Chandigarh, Sep 24 (IANS) Dumping a four-time legislator who was the number two in the government until just nine months ago may not have been easy for the Congress in Haryana. But the love life of former deputy chief minister Chander Mohan has clearly eclipsed his innings in the party.
The controversy over Chander Mohan first going missing in October last year and then emerging in December with a new name, new religion and new wife has finally cost him his ticket for next month's assembly elections.
Chander Mohan's claim for Congress ticket has been ignored by the high command -- due to his controversial marriage to lawyer Anuradha Bali aka Fiza and the eventual break-up earlier this year.
After the Congress released the first list of candidates in Haryana Wednesday evening, Fiza vowed to further expose him. "Just wait. I will further expose him. His career will be finished. He is mad. I will not even think of contesting against him," Fiza told IANS here.
Chander Mohan, reportedly in New Delhi, was not available for comments.
The 44-year-old elder son of former chief minister Bhajan Lal was elected to the Haryana assembly from Kalka constituency, adjoining Chandigarh, in a 1993 by-election and again in 1996, 2000 and 2005.
What makes his victories important is that he continued to win from this seat even when the Congress was out of power in the state in 1996-2005.
But that record cut little ice with the Congress leadership in New Delhi which ignored his claim for ticket this time.
With his Kalka seat bifurcated into Kalka and Panchkula assembly seats this time under de-limitation, Chander Mohan sought to be a candidate from either place. The Congress has announced candidates in both seats.
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had dropped him as deputy chief minister and from the council of ministers in December 2008 after Chander Mohan controversially got involved with Anuradha Bali (Fiza), a former assistant advocate general in the state.
Chander Mohan, who had never been a minister earlier, was straightaway elevated to be deputy chief minister in March 2005 when Hooda pipped his (Chander Mohan's) father Bhajan Lal to be chief minister.
Bhajan Lal had, at that time, led the Congress to a landslide victory in the assembly election. The Congress had returned to power in Haryana after nine years.
A sulking Bhajan Lal and his MP son Kuldip Bishnoi were expelled from the Congress last year. They floated the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).