A day after Congress sprang a surprise announcing candidature of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda from Sonipat parliamentary constituency, Jannayak Janta Party has fielded Digvijay Chautala, a fourth generation politician from the Chautala clan from the constituency.
The fledgling JJP, which is contesting the Lok Sabha polls in an alliance with Aam Aadmi Party in Haryana, on Monday, announced three more candidates for the general elections. The candidates included Digvijay Chautala from Sonipat, Jai Bhagwan Sharma from Kurukshetra and Mehmood Khan from Gurugram.
Founded by Ajay Chautala, father of Digvijay Chautala, the JJP is contesting on seven seats while the AAP is contesting on three seats in the state.
Digvijay, 27, will be taking on Congress veteran Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is more than double his age and the outgoing MP and BJP’s nominee Ramesh Chander Kaushik in Sonipat.
Digvijay’s elder brother, Dushyant is seeking re-election from Hisar constituency in the polls. Both are the great grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal.
Sonipat parliamentary constituency is a Jat dominated seat and had seen Devi Lal making his Lok Sabha debut in the year 1980.
After JJP’s good performance in Jind assembly bypoll earlier this year, when party candidate Digvijay had secured second spot leaving behind candidates of Congress and INLD, he is seen as JJP’s safe bet for Sonipat parliamentary seat. The polling arithmetic in Jind bypolls had suggested that Jat voters favoured Digvijay more over Congress’ heavyweight Jat candidate Randeep Surjewala and INLD’s Umed Singh Redhu.
Jind assembly segment falls under the Sonipat parliamentary seat.
In 2014 polls, BJP’s Ramesh Chander Kaushik, a Brahmin candidate, had defeated Jagbir Singh Malik, another Jat candidate of Congress in Sonipat.
With two Jats including Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Digvijay Chautala and a Brahmin candidate in the fray, Sonipat will be witnessing a fierce three-cornered electoral battle this time.
The Jat community has more than 5 lakh voters in Sonipat and there are more than 1.5 lakh Brahmins as well. The main Khaps including Malik, Dahiyas, Rathis etc in the area also play a key role in deciding the fate of candidates in the fray.
Two-time former Chief Minister Hooda is a sitting legislator from Garhi Sampla Kiloi in Rohtak district. Sonipat parliamentary constituency lies adjacent to the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat, where Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son Deepender is seeking the mandate for the fourth time.
Notably, Hooda who was hopeful of retaining Jat dominated Sonipat and Rohtak seats in 2014 had lost Sonipat due to anti-incumbency factor coupled with the Modi wave.
Meanwhile, the JJP has fielded Mehmood Khan, who retired as global leader of Unilever Innovation Process Development, from Gurugram, and former Zila Parishad member Jai Bhagwan Sharma alias DD Sharma from Kurukshetra.
The lone Muslim candidate from Gurugram, Mehmood Khan is pitted against the BJP’s nominee and Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh and Congress’ Captain Ajay Yadav.
A day before, the AAP-JJP had announced the candidature of AAP state chief Naveen Jaihind from Faridabad. Jaihind is considered a confidant of AAP national chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
