Denied ticket for the October 5 Haryana Assembly polls, ruling BJP legislator from Ratia reserve assembly constituency Lakshman Dass Napa has quit the party.

Napa, in a letter to state party chief Mohan Lal Badoli, shortly after the BJP put out the first list of 67 candidates for the polls, said he was quitting the party and resigning from its primary membership.

From Ratia, the party has fielded former Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Duggal had been denied re-nomination from the Sirsa parliamentary constituency after former Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, who had joined BJP ahead of the LS polls, was given the ticket.

Tanwar, however, lost to Congress veteran Kumari Selja.

In its first list released on Wednesday, the BJP fielded Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who is the sitting MLA from Karnal, from the Ladwa seat, and rewarded several recent entrants to the party with poll tickets.

The BJP is aiming for a hattrick in the Haryana Assembly polls but faces a tough challenge from a resurgent Congress which is looking to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor.

Saini is the BJP's chief ministerial face for the assembly polls. The counting of votes for the elections to the 90-member assembly will take place on October 8.

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