Locals mum, leave candidates guessing in Sonipat

SONIPAT: With voters maintaining silence over their preference, the candidates as well as their supporters have been left guessing in Sonipat parliamentary constituency.


The fight here is seen as a triangular contest among former CM Bhupinder Hooda of Congress, sitting MP Ramesh Kaushik of BJP and Digvijay Chautala of Jannayak Janta Party.

Rajbala Saini is the candidate of BSP-LSP alliance, while INLD has fielded Surender Chhikara. In all, there are total 29 candidates in the fray from Sonipat.

A visit to the constituency revealed that barring a few houses or buildings belonging to workers of different parties, people living in rural and urban areas seemed uninterested in flaunting flags or banners of any particular party.

Sonipat was one of the epic centres of Jat violence in February 2016. This had also triggered a war of words between Hooda and chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, leading to caste polarization further.

Without naming Hoodas, Khattar had accused them of triggering violence. Hooda, in retaliation, had accused BJP of giving Raj Kumar Saini a free hand to create caste divide in Haryana . He often blamed BJP over the issue of deaths of dera followers in Panchkula in August 2017.

“We respect and welcome all the candidates, but as far as vote is concerned, that is our own decision. We suffer a lot due to panchayat politics,” said Barhbhag Singh, a resident of Badkhalsa village. Naresh Kumar of Brahm Colony of Sonipat, “We have gone through nightmares in 2016. Why should we invite ire of people? Hence no flags,” he said.