Present in House, absent at home
Besides being regular in Parliament, MP has some infra projects to boast about, but was found wanting on other fronts
ROHTAK: Ramesh Chander Kaushik, 62, a Brahmin, won the Jat-dominated Sonepat parliamentary seat in 2014, riding high on the Modi wave.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed a rally to back Kaushik at Gohana ahead of the elections. The debutant MP is now keen to contest Lok Sabha elections again, even as some leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have rebelled against him.
Kaushik, known to be a turncoat, was first elected as a Haryana Vikas Party MLA from Ganaur in 1996 and served as a minister in the then Bansi Lal government. He then sided with Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Om Prakash Chautala and helped him topple the Bansi Lal government.
Kaushik later joined the Congress and again became an MLA in 2005. A year before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he quit the Congress and joined the BJP, and was fielded from Sonepat. Kaushik’s opponents accuse him of completely ignoring Jind, which also comes under the Sonepat parliamentary constituency, in the past years.
Virender Kashyap, BJP, Shimla 27th of 33-part series
INFRA BOOST
The MP worked on connecting Sonepat to Jind via a rail line and bringing seven more national highway projects to his constituency.
The recently inaugurated twin expressways of KMP (Kundli-ghaziabad-palwal, also Western Peripheral Expressway) and KGP (Kundli-ghaziabad-palwal, also Eastern Peripheral Expressway), encircling the national capital, have given a boost to road infrastructure in the region.
The decision to upgrade the Rai sports
school to a university will further spur sports infrastructure and facilities.
Kaushik is also credited with building public parks on unutilised railway land, which had previously been encroached upon. However, he has been criticised for shifting the sanctioned rail coach factory in Gohana to his former assembly constituency Ganaur. Farmers whose barren land was to be acquired in Gohana have been left in the lurch.
The opposition has also targeted Kaushik for reducing the sanctioned rail coach factory to a mere railways workshop, thus diminishing employment opportunities. Sonepat district was already a hub of health and education with several government and private universities functioning here.
AN OBSERVER
The MP has had 100% attendance in the Parliament in almost all sessions held in the past five years. However, this high attendance did not translate into active participation in parliamentary affairs.
Kaushik took part in only 18 debates in the Lok Sabha. The national and state averages for MPS is 67 and 60, respectively. In terms of the number of questions asked and private member bills introduced, Kaushik again lagged behind both national and state averages. In Kaushik’s own words, he preferred being more of an “observer” than a participant.
Meanwhile, when the Parliament is not in session, the MP is seldom available in the constituency. Many complain AGE: 62, PARTY: BJP, QUALIFICATION: Professional degree
POSITIONS HELD: Member of standing committee on science and technology, environment and forests
ELECTORAL RECORD: Got elected as Ganaur MLA on Haryana Vikas Party ticket in 1996-1999. Returned in 2005-2009 on Congress ticket. Got elected as Sonepat MP in 2014 as a BJP member
HIGH POINT: When elected as MP from Sonepat in 2014
LOW POINT: When the Congress denied him a ticket to contest the 2009 elections that while he does attend to calls, meeting him has never been easy.
He has been a total failure. What could be more shameful than taking credit for a project (rail coach factory) through which he has killed 90% jobs? The MP has reduced the factory sanctioned by the Congress govt to a workshop. Also, there has been no new project. JAGBIR SINGH MALIK, Congress MLA from Gohana
ISSUES REMAIN
Kaushik was among thousands who got stuck in a heavy traffic jam on the opening day of the Murthal toll plaza on the Delhi-chandigarh highway in 2017. After a series of protests, the MP announced that the toll plaza will soon be closed, citing his discussion with Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari.
However, the toll plaza continues to function in Murthal, leading to anger among people in the constituency. “This government had promised to reduce the number of toll plazas, but instead new ones have come up. The toll plaza was opened even when the construction work on the highway was still on. We met the MP and he assured us of a solution, but to no avail,” said Rajesh Mehta, a local trader.
Residents also feel that Kaushik has done nothing to curb the increasing crime rate in Sonepat. In Jind, residents complained of the odd timings of trains to and from Sonepat, which offer no help to daily commuters.
Among the nine assembly segments under the Sonepat constituency, six are under the control of opposition parties. Due to dominance of khaps in the region, Kaushik faces a challenge, being a non-jat leader. However, poll analysts said he could benefit from the split in Jat votes among the Congress, INLD and the newly formed JJP. Barring Kishan Sangwan, who won the Sonepat seat thrice, the constituency has never elected an MP again. Will Kaushik be another exception?
Questions
Kaushik’s record State average National average