Bahadurgarh/Gurugram, Mar 12 (IANS): After the announcement of parliamentary election on Sunday, Dipendra Singh Hooda, Rohtak MP, on Monday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for making nationalism a poll issue and using armed forces for its advantage.

"BJP leaders are riding on the back of soldiers to lure voters. Soldiers do not belong to one political party, but the entire country. It is unfortunate and objectionable that the Narendra Modi government has politicised the armed forces for poll advantage," Hooda said addressing a rally in Bahadurgarh.

"In last five years, the BJP government in the state and the Centre has practiced divisive politics and failed to put the nation on development path. I want to ask from double-engine government of Modi and Khattar to put numbers of development projects before the people," he said.

The BJP government is eyeing the Rohtak constituency as I was the one who retained the seat despite the Modi wave in 2014.

The BJP won 8 of the 10 parliamentary seats in Haryana in 2014 general elections. Rohtak and Hisar seats went to the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal (Dushyant Chautala), respectively.