Hooda: Sonepat win to pave way for CMship

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Sonepat, april 25

Contesting for the first time from the Sonepat Lok Sabha seat in his long political career spanning nearly three decades, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said his election as MP will pave the way to chief ministership in Chandigarh via Delhi.

The Congress nominee faces Ramesh Kaushik, the sitting BJP MP, and Digvijay Singh Chautala of the JJP, among others, on the seat.

Five of the nine Assembly segments falling under the seat are held by the Congress. While Kuldeep Sharma from Ganaur is contesting from Karnal, the other four MLAs were present at the meeting.

“I was elected MP from Rohtak in 2004 when the party picked me to head the Congress government after the 2005 Assembly elections. The conditions are similar this time as the Vidhan Sabha elections are to be held in the next six months,” Hooda told the The Tribune.

Hooda reminded people about the development works done in Sonepat during his 10-year term as CM and said the district that didn’t have even a single university now had nine.

His government brought rail coach factory to Sonepat, but the BJP government shifted it, said Hooda, who as CM was often accused of regional disparity by focussing more on Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonepat districts.

Addressing the workers from Sonepat and Rohtak districts today, Hooda alleged that all sections of society were upset since the BJP government had done nothing in the name of development.

“When the Congress comes to power, it will waive farm loans, implement recommendations of the Swaminathan panel report in totality, implement MNREGA by increasing the number of guaranteed work days from 100 to 150 and provide Rs 72,000 per annum to poor families under NYAY scheme,” he added.

Without naming his JJP opponent Digvijay Singh Chautala, Hooda said some people only believed in playing spoilsport.

‘I favoured 3 dists as Chief Minister’

"Yes, I concentrated more on Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonipat without overlooking the remaining districts because my predecessors ignored these three. For me, Rohtak and Sonipat are my eyes and the rest of Haryana is my body" Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Cong