No wave in Hooda stronghold, voters waver

Sunit Dhawan

THE Rohtak Lok Sabha constituency comprises Rohtak and Jhajjar districts and a part of Rewari district. It has been a stronghold of the Hooda family. Two-time Haryana CM and veteran Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda has represented the constituency in the Lok Sabha four times. His father, the late Ranbir Singh, was Rohtak MP twice. Hooda’s son Deepender, the sitting MP, won the seat in 2014, despite the Modi wave.

The wave has now waned. But if fielded again, it may not be a cakewalk for Deepender this time. Deepender won the seat in 2014, for the third time in a row, but his victory margin was drastically reduced with the Congress losing the Rohtak, Bahadurgarh, Badli and Kosli Vidhan Sabha seats to the BJP. Significantly, during the mayoral poll recently, Hooda-backed candidate lost to the BJP nominee. With Hooda facing several CBI and ED cases and his former aide Prof Virender booked for ‘inciting violence’ during the Jat stir, the image of the Hooda clan has been bruised. This is likely to have a bearing on the sitting MP. Above all, Deepender will have to trounce Congress infighting.

Polarisation in Haryana post the Jat quota agitation of February 2016, which turned violent, is almost certain to impact the polls, says Prof Rajender Sharma of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU). “Rohtak was the epicentre of the 2016 violence. The wounds are still fresh. People’s angst is likely to be reflected in the upcoming elections,”he explains.

Non-Jats in urban and rural areas are staunchly with the BJP. They claim the Khattar government has done a good job, ensuring ‘fair’ recruitment and initiating steps to weed out fake beneficiaries of welfare schemes. “It is for the first time that people like me have got jobs without paying any bribe.This was unthinkable during the Congress rule,” says Renu Verma, who was recently selected as a trained graduate teacher.

However, rural voters, especially the Jats, are seething with anger. They say the Centre’s crop insurance scheme is of no help and the Rs 6,000 per year income support to small farmers is only aimed at garnering votes. “While money is deducted from our bank accounts as premium for crop insurance, the terms and conditions of the scheme are such that hardly any farmer will be benefited,” claims Rajpal Dhaka of Rohtak’s Sundana village.

Anand Singhal, who runs a shop in Jhajjar town, says schemes like Ayushman Bharat deserve praise but demonetisation and GST have had an adverse impact on business. “It has been a mixed bag. There is no wave in favour or against any party, as of now. Voters are vacillating,” he says. Another shopkeeper validates his viewpoint. “There are positives and negatives which need to be weighed carefully.” He seems cautious.

Total voters  12,74,972 

Male  6,95,376

Female  5,79,596

Assembly segments

Rohtak: Manish Grover (BJP); Garhi Sampla-Kiloi: Bhupinder S Hooda (Cong); Meham: Anand Singh Dangi (Cong); Kalanaur (Reserved): Shakuntala Khatak (Cong); Jhajjar (Reserved): Geeta Bhukkal (Cong); Bahadurgarh: Naresh Kaushik (BJP); Badli: Om Prakash Dhankar (BJP);

Beri: Dr Raghuvir Singh Kadian (Cong); Kosli: Bikram Singh Thekedar (BJP)

Probable candidates

Cong: Deepender Singh Hooda

BJP: Om Prakash Dhankar, Baba Balak Nath

INLD: Sanchit Nandal, Satish Nandal

JJP: Balwan Suhag, Dharampal Makrauli