CHANDIGARH: Deepinder Singh Hooda, the 27-year-old son of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, made history of sorts on Saturday by winning the prestigious Rohtak Lok Sabha by-election by a massive margin of 231,958 votes. He defeated his nearest Bharatiya Janata Party rival, Abhimanyu, while India National Lok Dal nominee Balwan Singh Suhag finished third and lost his security deposit.

Interestingly, Mr. Deepinder, a software engineer, even surpassed his father's victory margin in the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections. It may be recalled that Mr. Hooda had defeated Captain Abhimanyu by over 1.5 lakh votes. He had later resigned the Lok Sabha seat earlier this year after getting elected to the State Assembly from the Kiloi constituency.

Mr. Deepinder polled 3,55,138 votes against 1,22,999 polled by Capt. Abhimanyu.

There were a total of 15 candidates, including eight Independents, in the fray. The constituency has a total electorate of 10.60 lakhs.

Political observers said that the reckoning that the low turnout of less than 51 per cent was a political setback for Mr. Hooda and was a result of the recent Gurgaon and Gohana episodes were now disproved. In fact, Mr. Deepinder and hisassociates was confident of an "unprecedented" victory margin.

This was because it was a mandate for Mr. Hooda's popular Government and the progressive policies of the UPA Government at the Centre. They told The Hindu that an analysis of the results clearly proved that the non-Jats were still with the Congress and they had not shifted their loyalties to the BJP.

Moreover, Mr. Hooda's strict measures against booth-capturing or bogus voting could also be the factors for the low polling.

Mr. Hooda and Excise and Taxation Minister Venod Sharma personally supervised the election campaign and assigned duties to partymen in the different Assembly segments in an atmosphere of party unity.

The former Haryana Chief Minister and president of the Haryana unit of the Congress, Bhajan Lal, congratulated Mr. Hooda and Mr. Deepinder for the landslide victory.

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