FORMER HARYANA chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his ex-MP son Deepender Hooda on Sunday held a show of strength in their stronghold, Rohtak. Accompanied by over 90 former Congress ministers, sitting and ex-MLAs, MPs, as well as Congress candidates who have contested polls in the past, the Hoodas held a mega rally where they said this was the last chance to save Haryana.
Assembly elections in the state are scheduled in October. The BJP did a clean sweep in Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year by bagging all 10 seats with thumping victory margins.
The Hooda camp, which is fairly strong in the Haryana Congress, had been demanding the party s state unit chief Ashok Tanwar s removal from the post. However, no such decision has been taken by the party high command. This has resulted in speculation that the Hoodas could part ways with Congress and floating a separate political party in the run-up to Assembly polls.
Posters for the Sunday rally circulated on social media which had no pictures of the Gandhi clan hinted towards such a move. The Hoodas have also announced another mega rally in Rohtak, calling it a Parivartan (change) rally.
The Sunday rally was called a Karyakarta Sammelan (workers meet). The 2019 Vidhan Sabha elections shall be our last chance to save Haryana from the ruling BJP government, which has not only destroyed the soul of Haryana, but is also looting the state through its indiscriminate corruption. The fight to unseat the BJP government will start from the mela ground in Rohtak on August 18, Bhupinder Hooda said told the gathering.
BJP had made 154 promises to the people of Haryana in the last Vidhan Sabha elections but people s hopes have now turned into despair. The state was burnt not once but three times under BJP s watch but they (BJP) are blaming others. I will ensure that the perpetrators of these dastardly riots are brought to justice, whenever I am given the opportunity, he added, referring to the violent Jat reservation agitation.
BJP government and its ministers make arrogant claims that they will win 75 seats in the 90-member House, but they are in for a rude shock. Voting trends in the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha polls would be very different as compared to Lok Sabha, as people will now be voting against the failures of the state government over the last five years, he claimed.
The former CM also referred to the increasing unemployment rate in the state in the last five years. Haryana had an unemployment rate of 2.8 per cent when the Congress was in power, which had gone up to 8.8 per cent over the last five years. People who have completed their engineering and obtained Masters degree have been appointed as Group D employees. This is not only unfair to those who are highly qualified, but also to those who are not that qualified. Such people are left with no opportunities, he said.
Former Rohtak MP and Congress Working Committee member Deepender Singh Hooda said, Haryana is at an important crossroads and what we decide today would determine the future of the state. BJP has systemically destroyed the spirit of brotherhood in the state for their narrow political gains and even the chief minister was openly seeking votes in the name of community, something that has never happened in the history of Haryana .
Addressing party workers, he said that while defeat and victory are a part of politics, his defeat in Rohtak had opened a new chapter in his political career .
The BJP government tried every trick in the book to bring me down and my defeat was like the Chakravyuh that Abhimanyu faced, he added.
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