CHANDIGARH: Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son Deepender Singh Hooda, who are contesting from Sonepat and Rohtak Lok Sabha respectively have coined the term 'Rohtak-Sonepat Ki Chaudhar' to campaign this poll season. Senior Hooda asserted that following the Lok Sabha polls, Sonepat will pave the for CM’s chair in Chandigarh via Delhi.
The father-son duo in order to counter and off-set the Modi factor has made sure that both their parliamentary constituencies have a narrative of `Rohtak-Sonepat Ki Chaudhar’. The former CM said that in 2005 when he was elected as the CM he had won the Lok Sabha elections from Rohtak the year before.
In Sonepat, the sitting MP Ramesh Kaushik of BJP who is pitted against Hooda, is seeking to make a strong government in the Centre in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Mod. Kaushik was the chief
parliamentary secretary from 2005 to 2009 in Hooda Government and now contesting against his former boss.
Bhupinder Hooda also said that the farmers were ignored by the Modi government as there are 6.70 lakh Jat voters out of total of 15.92 lakh voters. Digvijay Chautala of JJP is also a Jat and Kaushik of BJP a Bhramin which could possibly divide the Jat votes.
In the neighbouring constituency of Rohtak, Hooda’s son Deepender, a sitting MP from the constituency is looking forward to his fourth term. He won his first election due to his father's prominence and later in 2014 he won despite a strong Modi-wave prevailing in the state. The political observers feel that the biggest factor for this seat in these elections will be the Jat agitation on the reservation which took place in 2016 and its violent aftermath.