Hooda: Ties with Sonepat run deep, mother, wife from here

Panipat: Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday filed the nomination for the Sonepat seat on the last day of submitting papers for the 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda waves at supporters before filing his nomination in Sonepat on Tuesday.

Mukesh Tandon
Tribune News Service
PANIPAT, April 23

Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday filed the nomination for the Sonepat seat on the last day of submitting papers for the 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state. His wife Asha Hooda filed papers as his covering candidate.

Hooda reached Sonepat by chopper and then held a small roadshow for around 200 metres from the police lines to the Hanuman temple. The former Chief Minister’s MP son and Rohtak candidate Deepender Singh and party leaders Jaiteerath Dahiya, Jagbeer Malik, Jaiveer Balmiki, Shree Krishan Hooda, Shakuntla Khatak, Geeta Bhukkal, Karan Singh Dalal and Phool Chand Mulana were present for the nomination.

Addressing supporters near the Hanuman temple on the Sonepat-Gohana road before filing the nomination papers, Hooda said the whole nation was watching with keen interest the contest at Sonepat as he was fighting the election from there.

He said the people of Sonepat had given him love and full support always and he was indebted to them. “I want to repay that debt and that is why I am contesting from here,” he added.

Appealing to voters, the former Chief Minister said he was not afraid of competition from his opponents because the answer lay with the people. “My ties with Sonepat are deep and strong. My mother belonged to Sonepat, and so does my wife. Hence, all families here are like my own,” Hooda asserted.

Referring to the Assembly elections of the state that are due in October, the former CM said: “These are not mere parliamentary elections but the way to Chandigarh”.

He promised that loans of farmers and poor people would be waived after the formation of the Congress government. Taking a dig at the BJP, Hooda said the ruling party had befooled the people by making false promises of giving them Rs 15 lakh each by bringing back black money from foreign banks.

Nomination numbers