A Congress poster in Rohtak. (News18)
“The anti-incumbency was writ so large and peaking that to save the situation they changed the CM and Deputy CM. They were left with no option. They changed them in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections. Now, people will change the government,” Deepender Hooda tells News18
It is a prestige battle for Deepender Singh Hooda and his father and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Rohtak and the Jat-land of Haryana. Deepender lost the family bastion of Rohtak by 7,000-odd votes in the last Lok Sabha elections after being the three-time MP, while the party under his father’s leadership could not win the Haryana state elections held a few months later.
“That (2019) was a missed opportunity as far as the Congress is concerned. We had a good chance then also. We have to look ahead,” Deepender told News18 amid hectic campaigning in Rohtak, as he is holding 25 public meetings daily. In 2019, his father was given the charge of the Congress campaign just a month ahead of the Assembly elections and the party could notch up 30 of the 90 seats in the state. Bhupinder Singh Hooda was made the Congress Legislature Party Leader (CLP) four years ago and his confidante Uday Bhan was made the state party chief in 2022. With the Hoodas firmly in-charge, Deepender told News18: “This time, the scenario has completely changed. We will win decisively in Haryana, both in the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly elections this year.”
That is a big claim given the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana in 2019 and all other seats, except Rohtak, in 2014. Deepender, however, says the Congress will win all 10 seats this time in a complete turnaround. “Last time, there were many issues. I lost by 7,000-odd votes in Rohtak…I won in the EVM count, but I lost in postal ballots. There was a little bit of impact of Pulwama also. But in Haryana or the northern states, I still got 47% votes, which was more than any other Opposition candidate,” Deepender says. At his public meetings, he is telling people he has been an earnest politician who has an accha acharan (behaviour) and kept visiting them even after losing, and promises development as he and his father did as three-time MPs apiece from Rohtak.
THE JAT-LAND JOSTLE
The Congress has been upbeat ever since the BJP changed its Chief Minister Manohar Lal as well and JJP leader and Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala walked out of the alliance. The Congress government in the state is presently under a strain to prove its majority ahead of the October state elections. “The anti-incumbency was writ so large and peaking that to save the situation they changed the CM and Deputy CM. They were left with no option. They changed them in the middle of the Lok Sabha elections. Now people will change the government,” Deepender told News18.
He also says that the JJP has lost its relevance as is a party that no one trusts as they have betrayed the people by allying with the BJP. Both the Hoodas and the Chautalas (JJP and INLD) lay claim over the Jat vote in Haryana.
But the BJP tried the non-Jat card by first installing Manohar Lal as the CM and now an OBC face in Nayab Singh Saini. “It is the kind of politics which the BJP has tried to force upon Haryana, but what they did to divide the society has backfired on them now and all sections are supporting Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Congress. Across castes and communities, we have always got support. You are in my constituency now, this village we have reached has no Jat voters. You should go to other villages and take a survey and report back what is the support for us among all sections,” Deepender told News18 as we reached the Kunjia village in Jhajjar for a public meeting. The Congress had swept nine of the 10 Assembly seats falling under the Rohtak Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 too.
Deepender says the Congress is strengthened across the state since his father and Uday Bhan have been given the charge. “Ever since the Congress in Haryana instilled faith in the leadership of Bhupinder Hooda and Chaudhary Uday Bhan, the momentum has been increasing. There is a wave in the favour of Congress. More than 40 ex-MLAs and MPs joined the Congress in Haryana from the BJP and JJP. Large-scale desertions have been taking place in every district, with even sitting MPs joining the Congress in the last one year,” Deepender said. He, however, declines to lay claim to the CM post if the party were to win in Haryana in October and pitched for his father. “I have never made claim to any post in my career. I am just a worker. The Congress is led by Bhupender Hooda and Uday Bhan,” he told News18.
OLD-AGE PENSION: A MAJOR ISSUE
A major issue that the Congress is raising this time is to hike the old-age pension to Rs 6,000 a month, something that the JJP had promised to take to Rs 5,100 during the last elections, but failed to do. The old-age pension in Haryana stands at Rs 3,000 per month after the BJP government hiked it from Rs 2,750 in 2022. Deepender is, however, promising Rs 6,000 as old-age pension every month and telling people that if a couple falls in the old-age bracket, they would get Rs 12,000 a month which is almost Rs 400 a day.
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This seems to be having resonance on the ground given a considerable proportion of the population in Haryana is of senior citizens. One can see elders blessing Deepender by placing their hand on his head wherever he reiterates the Rs 6,000 pension promise. Youngsters are rallying for Deepender, wearing T-shirts embossed with his face.
Can Deepender re-claim Rohtak, a seat represented thrice by himself, thrice by his father and twice by his grandfather? The Hoodas have set their sights far beyond Rohtak this time.
