Deepender on overdrive to win over Kosli segment

Ravinder Saini
Tribune News Service
Rewari, April 14

Incumbent Congress MP from Rohtak Deepender Hooda is focusing upon the Kosli Assembly segment from where BJP candidate OP Dhankar had taken a massive lead of 42,538 votes over him in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

On Saturday, Deepender visited 15 villages of Kosli tehsil, which is part of the Rohtak parliamentary constituency, and appealed to the villagers to vote in favour of the Congress this time. It was his second visit to the Kosli Assembly segment in the past one week. Earlier, he came here on April 7 and addressed public meetings in 14 villages.

The Congress, which declared its nominees for the Lok Sabha election in Haryana on Saturday, cleared Deepender’s name for Rohtak seat. He will be seeking re-election for the fourth term.

Though Deepender romped home in Rohtak consecutively for the third time in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Kosli, dominated by the Ahir community, was crucial in bringing down his winning margin considerably compared to the previous election.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Deepender had created national record of any sitting MP to win his seat successively with a margin of 4,45,736 votes and also got lead in all nine Assembly segments, including Kosli, over his nearest rival. This was almost double the margin by which he had won in the 2005 byelection, when he was elected for the first time by defeating his rival BJP nominee Capt Abhimanyu.

“Deepender’s winning margin was reduced to 1.7 lakh in 2014 and his rival Dhankar managed to get a lead over him in two of the nine Assembly segments — Kosli and Bahadurgarh. That’s why, Deepender this time is leaving no stone unturned to improve his poll prospects in this election,” said a political analyst, adding that BJP nominee Dhankar polled 79,758 votes, while Deepender got 37,220 votes from Kosli in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Addressing the public meetings, Deepender sought votes on the basis of the development works undertaken in Kosli during the previous Congress government. “The BJP government has entirely failed to bring any new development project in Kosli,” he said.

In last poll, Ahir-dominated area reduced his winning margin 

• Though Deepender romped home in Rohtak consecutively for the third time in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Kosli, dominated by the Ahir community, was crucial in bringing down his winning margin considerably as compared to the previous election
• BJP nominee OP Dhankar polled 79,758 votes, while Deepender got 37,220 votes from Kosli in the 2014 Lok Sabha election
• Deepender’s winning margin was reduced to 1.7 lakh and Dhankar managed to get a lead over him in two of the nine Assembly segments — Kosli and Bahadurgarh