Congress puts Rohtak's Meham seat on hold, ticket aspirants keep finger crossed 

The Congress has declared seven out of eight seats of Rohtak and Jhajjar Assembly constituencies, considered a bastion of former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, but has put Meham seat on hold, reportedly keeping in view of hectic lobbying being done by ticket aspirants.

Senior Congress leader Anand Singh Dangi, a four-time MLA, has faced a defeat at the hand of independent candidate Balraj Kundu in the 2019 Assembly polls.

He has not applied for a ticket this time as he intends his son Balran Dangi to contest the polls from Meham in place of him, but the Congress leadership, as being claimed by the sources, is in favour of Anand to enter in the fray again.

Interestingly, both prominent parties— the Congress and the BJP— are on the same page in terms of allotting the ticket as they have put only one out of eight seats of Rohtak and Jhajjar district on hold in their first list of nominees for Assembly polls.

Three days ago, the BJP had declared its nominee for 67 seats but did not announce its candidate for the Rohtak seat being at present represented by the Congress MLA and the party chief whip Bharat Bhushan Batra. The Congress has made Batra its nominee again from Rohtak.

The BJP has fielded former Indian Kabaddi Team skipper Deepak Hooda from Meham. It will be his debut election.

As far as the Congress is concerned, 28 ticket aspirants have applied for the Meham seat. These include Balram Dangi, Chaudhary Devi Lal University (CDLU) professors — Dr Manoj Siwach and Dr Geeta Rani, MDU Teachers’ Association president Dr Vikas Siwach, retired college teacher Dr Mahipal Singh Gill and Akhil Bhartiya Adarsh Jat Mahasabha national spokesperson Dr Deepak Rathi.

“The Congress candidate is likely to be from Dangi family. Now, it is to be seen whether it is Anand Singh Dangi or his son Balram,” said a local Congress leader.