Political capital of state, Rohtak has given Deputy PM, CM and youngest MP

Ravinder Saini

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Rohtak, March 22

The Rohtak parliamentary constituency, dominated by the Jat community, is a bastion of Hooda family as its three generations have romped home victorious in the Lok Sabha poll nine times from here.

Former CM and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Hooda and his son Deepender had a hat-trick win. Ranbir Singh, Bhupinder’s father, served as MP from here in 1952 and 1957. Bhupinder was elevated to the post of CM in 2005 while serving as MP from Rohtak. It paved the way for his son to enter politics in a byelection held that year after the resignation of his father from the Rohtak seat.

Considered as the political capital of Haryana, Rohtak has earned the distinction of giving a Deputy PM, a CM and the youngest MP. Devi Lal became Deputy PM in 1989 after clinching a victory from Rohtak and defeated the outgoing MP Hardwari Lal. Besides Rohtak, Devi Lal contested the Lok Sabha poll from Sikar (Rajasthan) and Ferozepur (Punjab), and was defeated at Ferozepur. He retained the Sikar seat on becoming the Deputy PM and left Rohtak.

Devi Lal paid a heavy price for it as he could not succeed to win in the next three elections from Rohtak as people were reportedly annoyed that he deserted Rohtak. In the 1991, 1996 and 1998 poll, Bhupinder defeated Devi Lal and emerged as a tall leader of the state. The record of victory by the lowest margin exists in the name of Bhupinder, who registered win over Devi Lal by a narrow margin of 383 votes in the 1998 poll.

Hooda lost his fourth election to INLD candidate and political greenhorn Capt Inder Singh by a margin of 1,44,693 votes due to the Kargil conflict effect but wrested Rohtak in 2004 by defeating BJP candidate Capt Abhimanyu with a margin of 1,50,435 votes.

In 2005, Deepender, at the age of 27, won the Rohtak bypoll defeating BJP nominee Capt Abhimanyu and became the youngest MP of the 14th Lok Sabha. In 2009, he again emerged victorious with a record margin of 4,45,736 votes and made a hat-trick by winning the 2014 Lok Sabha poll. He lost his first Lok Sabha election in 2019 to BJP candidate Arvind Sharma by a thin margin of 7,503 votes.

“Our family has been contesting elections since four generations. Bhupinder’s grandfather Matu Ram had also contested an election in pre-Independent India,” said a member of Hooda family.

The Rohtak parliamentary constituency comprises nine Assembly segments, four each in Rohtak and Jhajjar districts and one at Kosli (Rewari). The Congress has seven MLAs, BJP one and one other is an Independent. The constituency has a total of 18,64,021 voters in 547 villages.