With the stakes being high in the Haryana Lok Sabha elections, whose results will influence the state's Assembly elections to be held in October, the Congress is betting big on its old warhorses Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son Deepinder Singh Hooda to stop the BJP juggernaut in the state.
While the former Chief Minister has been fielded from Sonipat, his son is in the fray for a fourth term from the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat.
But the question is will Hooda senior be able to do for the party what Amarinder Singh did for the Congress in Punjab in 2014?
The Congress, which had been out of power in Punjab since 2007, had, in a surprise move, announced Amarinder Singh's name from Amritsar in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Amarinder Singh took up the challenge and not only delivered, but also handed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its candidate Arun Jaitley, who is now the Union Finance Minister, a humiliating defeat by winning by a margin of over one lakh votes. This happened while the BJP was having a good run in all the other north Indian states.
Amarinder Singh's Lok Sabha win boosted the Congress' political fortunes in Punjab and paved the way for the party to sweep the February 2017 state Assembly polls.
The Congress is now pinning its hopes on a similar feat by the Hoodas to boost the fortunes of its faction-ridden Haryana unit.
--IANS
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