CHANDIGARH: The Congress on Thursday nominated Pawan Beniwal, who has recently jumped ship from the BJP, as the party candidate for Ellenabad byelection. His name was announced by the party high command after BJP formally announced Govind Kanda as its candidate on Thursday.
INLD has already fielded Abhay Singh Chautala for the byelection. Beniwal will file his nomination on Friday in presence of senior party leader, and he is considered close to Haryana state Congress president Kumari Selja and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Once a close aide of INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala, Congress nominee Pawan Beniwal, 53, is expected to give a tough fight to Abhay Chautala for the third time consecutively.
Beniwal had joined BJP in October 2014 after snapping his long association with Abhay. He then unsuccessfully contested the Ellenabad assembly election but lost from Abhay with a margin of around 12,000 votes.
In the 2019 assembly polls, Pawan finished second, as Abhay Singh again defeated him with a margin of around 12,000 votes.
