Jind man who made history in Sonepat
Mukesh Tandon
Sonepat, June 6
With the victory of Satpal Brahamchari, the Congress wrested the Sonepat seat from the BJP after a gap of 10 years and registered a victory from here for the fifth time.
Brahamchari is the first MP from the Sonepat Lok Sabha seat who is a resident of Jind district. The Sonepat Lok Sabha seat became an independent seat after it separated from the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat in 1977. It comprises nine Assembly constituencies — six in Sonepat district (Kharkhoda, Gannaur, Rai, Sonepat, Gohana and Baroda ) and three in Jind district (Safidon, Jind and Julana).
All the 13 MPs elected from this seat in the last 47 years, except Devi Lal, belonged to Sonepat district. Brahamchari is the 14th MP who will be representing this seat.
The Sonepat Lok Sabha, which is part of the Deswali belt, is considered to be a strong citadel of the former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Brahamchari defeated BJP’s Mohan Lal Badoli by a close margin of 21,816 votes in this year’s Sonepat Lok Sabha elections. Brahamchari bagged 5,48,682 votes while Mohan Lal Badoli got 5,26,866. Congress gained 48.82 per cent of the votes and the BJP 46.88 per cent.
Brahamchari led in four constituencies — by 12,931 votes in Kharkhoda constituency, 24,325 votes in Julana constituency, 30,573 votes in Baroda constituency and by 1,392 votes in Gohana constituency.
Badoli led in five constituencies — by 35,846 votes in Sonepat, by 5,331 votes in Safidon, by 2,081 votes in Rai, by 1,708 votes in Gannaur and by 23,162 votes in Jind. But, Baroda, Julana and Kharkhoda constituency gave Brhamchari a huge margin, due to which he was able to register this win.
Notably, Kaushik had won the seat by a margin of 77,504 votes and the BJP bagged 24.5 per cent vote, while Congress’ Jagbeer Malik had bagged 19.04 per cent votes in the 2014 elections.
In 2019, Kaushik again won the seat and defeated the Congress stalwart and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda by a margin of 1,64,864 votes. The BJP’s Kaushik received a total of 51.95 per cent votes, while former CM Hooda had to satisfy with only 37.38 per cent of the votes.
The BJP was ahead of the Congress party in seven Assembly constituencies in 2019 — in Gannaur by 16,622 votes, in Sonepat by 41,870 votes, in Rai by 18,072 votes, in Jind by 39,901 votes, in Julana by 13,842 votes, in Safidon by 45,245 votes and in Gohana by 10,770 votes. The Congress led only in two constituencies — Kharkhoda by 7,317 votes and Baroda by 16,748 votes.
Fifth win for Congress
Congress registered its fifth victory from the Sonepat Lok Sabha seat with the victory of Congress’ Satpal Brahamchari, taking them one count ahead of the BJP. The BJP won from here four times — in 1999, 2004, 2014 and 2019; and the Congress five times — in 2009, 1991, 1984, 1983 (bypoll) and 2024.
