Hooda’s rivals seek change in Haryana

The Congress party on Friday looked poised to return to power in Haryana with the support of seven independent MLAs and Haryana Janhit Congress’s Kuldeep Bishnoi expressing keenness to join the government with his six legislators. However, it remains uncertain whether incumbent chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, though a frontrunner, would continue in the top office.

Intense lobbying for the CM’s post in the state had begun on Thursday evening. Kumari Selja, a known Hooda detractor, called upon Congress president Sonia Gandhi soon after the poll results were out. Through Friday, Selja, along with other Hooda detractors, Tosham MLA Kiran Chaudhary and Rewari MLA Capt Ajay Yadav, met Gandhi to discuss the poll results. Late on Friday, Congress MLAs authorised Sonia Gandhi to select the  next chief minister.

The Congress president sent AICC general secretaries Mohsina Kidwai, Prithviraj Chavan and BK Hariprasad to Chandigarh to discuss with legislators the process of government formation. Following the CLP meeting, sources said that while Hooda remained the frontrunner for the office, his detractors were still pushing for a change.

At one point the party also  toyed with the idea of replacing Hooda with Union minister and Ambala MP Selja, a Dalit, making her the first Dalit CM from the party in Haryana. The move could be of great symbolic value and political significance for the Congress not just within Haryana but also across the country.

The anti-Hooda camp is arguing that the party’s poor show was due to the freehand given to the CM to choose candidates for the polls. Chaudhary, who was a minister in Hooda’s government, and Selja have claimed that the Congress lost heavily in areas beyond Hooda’s pocketborough of Rohtak since he had limited all development projects to his constituency. Party leaders in Delhi have credited the “below expectations” performance to “overconfidence and complacency.” Repeating Hooda could also steer the non-Jat voters (traditionally Congress voters) away from the party.

On Friday, the party significantly chose to send its state unit chief Phool Chand Mullana, who lost the election from his pocketborough of Mullana (SC), to governor Jagannath Pahadia for staking claim to form the government. Sources said that by not sending Hooda to stake claim, the party had dropped hints that it could look beyond the Jat leaders for the CM’s post. However, in case the party decides to continue with Hooda, there is a strong possibility that his “unilateral” functioning would be curtailed.

 Meanwhile, the leadership is also considering taking support of Bhajan Lal’s HJC. His son and HJC chief Bishnoi said that his party MLAs “will not sit in the opposition.” Bishnoi’s support is crucial as depending on independents may prove troublesome in the long run. — With inputs from Ajay Bhardwaj in Chandigarh