BJP, Opposition parties eye Hooda bastion Rohtak; mobilise crowds

All roads are leading to Rohtak, and a former CM, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and his MP son Deepender Singh Hooda seem to be in the firing line of the BJP and opposition parties alike as they hold programmes and mobilise the public in Hooda's bastion.

Long seen as the political capital of Haryana, Rohtak has, of late, become a hotbed of political activity. While CM Nayab Singh Saini has visited Rohtak twice in the past week for different engagements, including holding an interaction with villagers of the Meham subdivision to address the issue of waterlogging, he is scheduled to return on September 17 to flag off a marathon, address the state-level Vishwakarma Jayanti celebrations, and launch the Swasth Naari-Shashakt Parivar campaign in the state, to be attended by Union Health Minister JP Nadda.

Not mincing words, state BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli, says, “The Hoodas should know they are the target. We have done badly in Rohtak and Sirsa. Of course, we want to wrest the seats in these districts and are going all-out to hold our programmes in Rohtak.”

The INLD, too, is gearing up for a mega rally in Rohtak on September 25 to commemorate the birth anniversary of the late Deputy PM, Devi Lal, who contested parliamentary elections from Rohtak multiple times.

INLD national president Abhay Singh Chautala has been frequenting the city, managing to induct several key leaders from rival parties into the party fold. Chautala has described the upcoming rally as the "biggest-ever celebration" of Devi Lal’s birth anniversary, aiming to showcase the INLD’s strength in the Jat belt, considered as the stronghold of Bhupinder Hooda.

With its splinter group of the INLD, the Jannayak Janta Party, failing to open an account in the Assembly elections and the Congress unable to decide on handing over the reins of the state unit to a Jat or a non-Jat, the INLD — also a Jat-centric party — is hoping to wean away the Jats from the Congress, given the BJP’s non-Jat focus.

Meanwhile, Deepender Hooda has also stepped up his offensive, issuing a strong rebuttal to Abhay over the proposed rally and the BJP’s increased activity.

Even as Hooda aides maintain that the parties are joining hands to counter the family clout in Rohtak, as are the “detractors” within the party, the junior Hooda maintains, “Everybody knows the strength of the Congress lies in Rohtak. Sabkay nishanay par hain hum, kuchh toh hoga hum mein dum. That we got a 40% vote share is no mean achievement, even though the BJP managed to form the government by resorting to vote-theft,” he claimed.

Alleging that the INLD was a puppet of the BJP, he said, “This is clear from former minister Gopal Kanda’s statement that he got a call from a senior BJP leader to extend help to Abhay Chautala’s son, Arjun, in Rania. Later, Chautala took Arjun to seek blessings of Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar after he won the election. In the past, too, the INLD has formed the government with the BJP’s help, while the former has supported the latter in elections, including those for the Rajya Sabha.” The INLD should hold a show of strength in Karnal or Kurukshetra, which were the BJP’s strongholds, he added.