Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar said on Monday that even an ordinary BJP worker is capable of defeating former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda from the Baroda assembly seat in Sonipat.
Khattar made the remarks days after Hooda challenged him to contest the following month’s Baroda assembly against him.
The BJP and Congress have yet to declare their candidates for the Baroda assembly, where by-elections will be held on November 3.
The Baroda assembly seat was vacated in April following the death of Deputy Member of Congress, Shri Krishan Hooda. Hooda, who is the leader of the opposition in the Haryana assembly, had said that if the Khattar government is confident in his performance, the prime minister should challenge the by-elections.
Khattar said the Congress party also did an “experiment” earlier in the Jind election in January last year, but they had to eat a humble pie.
“They experimented earlier when they sent a leader to the national level (Randeep Singh Surjewala). We’re saying that this time they should also do another experiment (on Baroda), ”Khattar said when asked to comment on Hooda challenging him to fight Baroda.
Khattar, however, rejected the challenge, saying that even a common BJP worker is capable of defeating Hooda of Baroda.
“If he decides to jump into the fray, even an ordinary worker from our party is capable of defeating him,” Khattar told reporters here on the sidelines of an event.
He said an ordinary new BJP worker, Krishan Middha, had inflicted defeat on the leader of Congress, Randeep Singh Surjewala of Jind, a seat that the saffron party had won for the first time.
In particular, Jind’s bypoll in January last year was necessary after the death of Middha’s father, Hari Chand Middha, who was an INLD leader.
Shortly before Jind’s bypoll, Krishan Middha had joined the BJP.
“As in Jind, our ordinary and new party worker defeated Surjewala, here too (in Baroda), an ordinary and local worker will defeat Hooda if he fights from there,” Khattar said.
Hooda had recently said that all sectors of society were fed up with the BJP-JJP dispensation. He had also said that there was anger from the farming community against the Center’s three farm laws.
“This government has failed on all fronts. For the last six years they neglected the constituency (Baroda) and now they talk about development, but people have seen their true face and it will teach them a lesson in the bypoll, ”Hooda had said.
The Baroda assembly seat that falls in the Jat-dominated Deswali belt of the Rohtak-Sonipat region is considered the Hoodas stronghold and Congress had reaped significant electoral gains in 2019 assembly polls from there.
“If the government is confident in his development work, CM Khattar should stand as a candidate in the Baroda by-elections. If Khattar opposes the by-elections, I am ready to compete against him.
“Let the Baroda by-elections decide whether the people are satisfied with the development work and vote on the popularity of the government,” Hooda, a two-time chief minister, previously told reporters.
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