Infrastructure in place, but BJP may still be on sticky wicket in Sonipat

ROHTAK: Sharing boundaries with the national capital on one side and Uttar Pradesh on the other, Sonipat Lok Sabha constituency is a mix of rural and urban votes with six of its nine assembly seats in the urban Sonipat district and the remaining three — Jind, Safidon and Julana — in the rural Jind district.

In recent past, there has been unprecedented development in Sonipat — in education, industry and infrastructure. However, with urbanisation, there has also been a rise in crime in the constituency.


Barring Jat leader late Kishan Singh Sangwan of BJP, voters in this constituency have always unseated the sitting MP since its formation in 1977. Sangwan is the only MP to have won three times in a row from here — for INLD in the 1998 mid-term polls, and as BJP’s nominee in 1999 and 2004.

Former deputy PM Devi Lal won his first Lok Sabha election from here, in 1980. Of the 11 Lok Sabha elections held here, Sonipat has elected eight MPs and six of them fought their first election from here.

MP Ramesh Kaushik won the seat in 2014 on the back of the Modi wave, beating Congress’s Jagbir Malik and INLD’s Padam Singh Dahiya. Kaushik got 3.5 lakh votes, while Congress’s Malik got 2.7 lakh votes and INLD’s Dahiya got 2.6 lakh votes.

Sonipat falls in the National Capital Region (NCR) and nearly 1 lakh people in the constituency commute to and from Delhi every day for jobs and other purposes. On the seat, Kundli, Rai, Bari (Ganaur) and Sonipat city have come up as major hubs. It is home to institutes of higher education like Bhagat Phool Singh Women’s University, Bhagat Phool Singh Medical College, Murthal Technical Universities, Chaudhary Ranbir Singh University, Rajiv Gandhi Educational Institutes and a dozen engineering colleges.

With development, though, there has also been a rise in serious crimes like murder, shootout, robbery, rape and molestation. The rise in realty prices has also led to property disputes skyrocketing. The Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway is still incomplete and the under-construction Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal (KGP) Expressway have helped in the industrial and realty boom.

However, parts of Jind district which fall under this Lok Sabha constituency have not had the privilege of a similar growth story. While people in urban segments are enjoying the fruits of industrialisation and development, its rural population continues to be dependent on agriculture, growing wheat, rice and sugarcane.

The Lok Sabha seat continues to be an important hurdle for the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party. Even though Sonipat elected an MP of the party in 2014, seven of its nine assembly seats are still in the control of opposition parties. Former chief minister (CM) Bhupinder Singh Hooda has always claimed that he has considerable influence on the voters because of his Jat roots. His wife Asha Dahiya hails from Matindu village. Her caste clan, Dahiya khap, is prominent in the area. It won’t be a cakewalk for either the ruling BJP or opposition parties to ensure victory from Sonipat.