BJP may field paralympian Deepa Malik against Hooda or son to win Jat vote

GURUGRAM: BJP, which is struggling with the Jat candidates on certain seats in Haryana, is looking at paralympian Deepa Malik as its saviour. Sources revealed the party may field Malik on one of the two seats considered pocket boroughs of the Congress’s Hoodas, ie

Sonipat

or Rohtak.

Preferably, she will contest from Rohtak, but if that doesn’t work out for unforeseen circumstances, BJP will give her the Sonipat ticket.

Malik (48) joined BJP on March 25, and there were initial speculations the party will field her from Karnal.

However, with the last date of filing nominations approaching, the party has begun considering her for Rohtak or Sonipat.

Meanwhile, Congress appears ready to continue with Deepender Singh Hooda in Rohtak, though it is yet to decide whether to field his father, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, from Faridabad or Sonipat, with the latter considered a bigger possibility by insiders. Hooda Jr is very popular among Rohtak voters.

He is appreciated for the infrastructure development that has taken place in the area during his time, and helped him stand his ground in 2014, when the Modi Wave washed away competition across the state.

But BJP is facing a real problem finding a suitable candidate for this seat.

Not only do they not have a Jat candidate for the seat, their current Rohtak MLA, Manish Grover, is not popular in the rural areas of Rohtak.

BJP wants a candidate who is popular and from the

Jat community

. In fact, the party had tried to woo cricketer Virender Sehwag, but the latter refused to join politics.

Notably, the seat covers districts of Rohtak, Jhajjar and parts of Rewari. Since 1952, there have been 17 elections, in which Jats have won every time, with Congress winning 11 times, while BJP has never won it on its own.

The Sonipat seat includes districts of Sonipat and parts of Jind. Here, the incumbent, Remesh Kaushik of BJP, had lately expressed his lack of interest in contesting the parliamentary elections.

He has since had a change of mind, but the party is not keen on fielding him any longer, and certainly not from Sonipat. On top of that, if Congress fields Hooda Sr from Sonipat, BJP will be in a bigger dilemma over candidate selection.

Malik checks various boxes as a suitable candidate to compete against the Hoodas.

She is a Jat, comes from an Army family, has won medals for the country, comes with a clean profile, has been involved with social causes and is a good orator. All this works in the party’s favour.