Chandigarh, March 13 Former Lok Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda, son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha from Haryana here amid much fanfare.
However, Congress state chief Kumari Selja was conspicuously absent during the filing of his nomination as he was accompanied by his father and several other party leaders and MLAs in the state secretariat.
Hooda junior, has inherited the politics from his family as his grandfather was a freedom fighter.
After winning the Rohtak seat in 2005 and 2009, and managed to hold the fort from the seat even in the 2014 Modi wave.
In 2005, he was the youngest to win in the Lok Sabha elections. However, Deepender lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to BJP's Arvind Sharma by a margin of 7,800 votes.
After winning in 2005, he was made a member of the External Affairs COmmittee and later was also made a member of the Agriculture Committee in Parliament. After winning in 2009, he was made a member of the Human Resource Department Committee as well as the Local Area Development Scheme Committee.
Besides politics, he also served as a member of the IIT and Indian Red Cross society. Before entering politics, Deepender had worked for Infosys and Reliance Industries.
Though state Congress president Selja, a Dalit face of the party in the state and close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was expected to be sent again to the Rajya Sabha, the camp led by Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, supported by a majority of 31 MLAs, began flexing its muscles in the light of the developments in Madhya Pradesh.
The former Haryana Chief Minister was more outspoken to the leadership in a closed-door meeting a few days ago.
According to party sources, he even turned down the names of Selja and Surjewala and told the high command that it could only be his son from Haryana who can be nominated for Rajya Sabha.
The camp was strongly pitching for Hooda junior, whose name was announced by the party on Thursday evening. In the 90-member Assembly, the BJP-JJP alliance has 50 legislators with the support of six of the seven Independents.
The opposition Congress has 31 members. The INLD has one member while one legislator belongs to the Haryana Lokhit Party.
If all goes as per plan, the Congress is going to retain one seat for full term that is set to be vacated by Selja.
( With inputs from IANS )