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In show of strength, Rao Inderjit Singh to hold rally in Jhajjar on September 23
The Union minister, who nurses a dream of becoming Haryana chief minister, will hold a show of strength rally in Jhajjar’s Patauda village on September 23
Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh, who nurses a dream of becoming Haryana chief minister, will show his strength by organising a Shaheedi Diwas Samaroh outside Ahirwal region in Jhajjar’s Patauda village on September 23 on the martyrdom day of Rao Tularam.
This village is also a ‘Ahir-dominated’ village and comes under Jhajjar district, which is considered to be former chief minister Bhupinder Hooda’s stronghold.
This time, Rao Inderjit had invited only Haryana BJP chief OP Dhankar in the rally and he will be the chief speaker. Rao Inderjit, a prominent ‘Ahir’ leader from southern Haryana, wields considerable clout in Ahirwal constituencies.
Son of former Haryana CM Rao Birender Singh, Inderjit comes from the famed Rampura House, an icon of royalty in dynastic politics of southern Haryana. He is one of the few BJP leaders, who did not face any protest from farmers in the ongoing farm agitation.
As many as six MLAs, two ministers in the Haryana government and four MPs will share the stage with Union minister Inderjit Singh in a show of strength.
Rao’s loyalist Bhiwani-Mahendergarh MP Dharambir Singh, Sonepat MP Ramesh Kaushik, Rohtak MP Arvind Sharma, Rajya Sabha MP DP Vats, Haryana ministers Banwari Lal, OP Yadav and MLAs loyal to Rao will attend the rally.
Haryana cooperation minister Banwari Lal said, “We have started ground-level preparations to make the rally a success.”
A legislator loyal to Rao Inderjit, pleading anonymity, said some opponents within the BJP are trying to underestimate Rao Inderjit by inducting newly-appointed Union minister Bhupender Yadav in the Ahirwal region.
“Bhupender Yadav selected the route of his Jan Ashirwad Yatra that is being represented by Rao Inderjit and the MLAs opponent to our faction welcomed the newly-appointed minister. The September 23 rally will prove the charisma of Rao Inderjit outside the Ahirwal belt,” the MLA added.
On Shaheedi Diwas (September 23) in 2013, the then Congress MP from Gurgaon Rao Inderjit had announced to quit the grand-old party in a Rewari rally while accusing the then Haryana CM Bhupinder Sigh Hooda on the issue of discrimination in terms of development and jobs.
Throwing an open challenge to Hooda, Rao Inderjit had dared Hooda to resign from his assembly seat and said he would resign from the Gurgaon parliamentary seat to have a direct battle on the turf of Gurugram (earlier Gurgaon) to prove who enjoys mass support.
Retired professor from Bhiwani government college and political commentator, Anant Ram, said Rao Inderjit enjoys dominance in the southern region of the state and there is no leader in Ahirwal region of his stature.
“He had also taken key decisions of his political life on the Shaheedi Diwas. He remained at loggerheads with former Congress CMs Bhajan Lal and Bhupinder Singh Hooda. After Bhupender Yadav’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra that passes through the Ahirwal belt, there is some uneasiness in the Rao camp and he has decided to show his strength by holding his rally at Jhajjar’s Patauda village, which is also a Yadav-dominated village but it comes under Hooda’s bastion. This seems to be a pressure tactic on high command by Inderjit to hold a rally without calling any top BJP leader,” he added.
