Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is leading in the Garhi Sampla-Kiloli constituency by close to 15,000 votes at 11 am as counting of votes continue for Haryana assembly elections. According to the early trends the ruling BJP is still some distance from the half-way mark of 45 seats. Congress is all set to more than double its 2014 tally of 15 seats.
BJP’s Satish Nandal is Hooda’s main rival on the Garhi Sampla-Kiloli assembly seat. Hooda had defeated Satish Nandal who was then in Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) by 47, 185 votes. Congress had lost 2014 Assembly polls to the BJP.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a prominent Jat leader in Haryana, has twice been the chief minister and has represented the party in parliamentarian four times as an MP.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that Congress will cross the majority mark in Haryana while speaking to reporters.
Garhi Sampla-Kiloi is a rural seat in the Rohtak district with a dominant Jat vote bank and has over two lakh voters. A total of thirteen candidates are in the fray here, Hooda has defeated Nandal twice in 2009 and 2014 in this constituency, which was formed 10 years ago. It was previously known as Kiloi. Hooda had hit out at BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar government and alleged that it had stopped development in his constituency. Supply of water and power along with the availability of health services were the main poll issues in his constituency.
