Narrowly lost in 2019, Hooda’s citadel of Rohtak Congress’s ‘safest bet’ in Haryana

Seen as former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s bastion, which his son Deepender lost by a narrow margin in 2019, the Rohtak Lok Sabha constituency this time has emerged as the Congress’s “safest bet” in the state even as sitting BJP MP Arvind Sharma dismisses the Opposition’s claims as “merely a perception created by the Hoodas”.

“This so-called strongest seat is just a perception that Hoodas have created. What happened in 2019? They lost. This time too they won’t be able to make it as this is not a local election. People will vote on national issues,” Sharma tells The Indian Express at his residence in Rohtak on Sunday.

The Congress seemingly draws its confidence from the fact that it holds seven of the nine Assembly segments falling under the Lok Sabha seat. The Independent legislator from Meham, Balraj Kundu, is seen to be against the BJP, though he is not officially supporting the Congress. The only seat held by the BJP is Kosli.

Sharma also insists that the people of Rohtak will vote in his favour not due to the “Modi factor” but for “the work the Prime Minister has done for the entire nation”.

In 2019, when the BJP won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Rohtak saw the closest contest in the state with Sharma trumping Deepender by a margin of just over 7,503 votes. The Congress’s next best performance in Haryana came in neighbouring Sonipat, where Bhupinder Hooda lost to the BJP’s Ramesh Chander Kaushik by over 1.5 lakh votes.

In the remaining eight seats, the BJP’s winning margin hovered around the 3 lakh mark, and crossed 6 lakh in Faridabad and Karnal.

All 10 seats of the state go to polls in the sixth phase on May 25.

Apart from holding seven Assembly segments in the Rohtak seat – Garhi Sampla-Kiloi,