Gurugram: Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda looks inclined to resist any move from Delhi to foist the Congress high command’s choice as Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Haryana assembly.
An emergency meeting of the newly elected Congress MLAs, called by Hooda at his Delhi residence Wednesday, is being viewed as a show of strength by him ahead of the Congress Legislature Party’s crucial meeting in Chandigarh Friday to elect its leader.
Of 37 Congress MLAs in Haryana, 31 attended the meeting at Hooda’s residence and promised their support. However, five Selja faction MLAs were conspicuously absent.
“It was an informal meeting. Several newly elected MLAs had called for the setting up of a meeting. Hence, I called an informal meeting,” Hooda told The Print Thursday.
Asked who would lead the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), Hooda said the Congress high command would take a call after meeting all the newly elected MLAs on 18 October. Hooda, however, dismissed the question of whether he intended to serve another term as the CLP leader as hypothetical. He was the CLP leader and LoP from 2019 to 2024.
A Congress MLA and Hooda loyalist, while speaking to ThePrint, claimed that only party state president Udai Bhan was informed of the date for the CLP meeting. However, Hooda told ThePrint he was in the loop.
“By calling the meeting to elect CLP leader in this manner, without taking Hooda into confidence, the party high command has unnecessarily created a situation of confrontation. Tomorrow, if the party high command wants to thrust its choice on us, how will that be acceptable when 32 out of 37 MLAs are on one side?” the MLA further said.
After the assembly election loss, Haryana Congress in-charge Deepak Babaria offered his resignation to Rahul Gandhi. The move has increased the pressure on Hooda loyalist Udai Bhan to step down as state president and Hooda to desist from staking claim to the LoP post.
The loss also sparked speculation about the Congress high command considering changes in Haryana, starting with the replacement of the leader of the legislative party, the state president, and the state in-charge.
If the LoP post goes to the Kumari Selja faction, former deputy CM Chander Mohan is considered the only leader senior enough to hold the post. Chander Mohan, the elder son of Bhajan Lal, is a five-time MLA. He has been elected as MLA four times from Kalka and, in the recently concluded election, from Panchkula.
However, the “Fiza episode”, which involved an extramarital affair and his conversion to Islam to get married again, forced him to resign as deputy CM in 2008 and may block his way now.
Among the MLAs in the Hooda faction, the names of Jhajjar’s Dalit MLA Geeta Bhukkal for the state president position and Thanesar MLA Ashok Arora for the Leader of Opposition post are doing the rounds.
Also Read: Joy to bitterness in 4 months. How Congress crashed in Haryana after cruising post LS poll results
Hooda has kept the Congress alive, says Rohtak MLA
A four-time MLA from Thanesar in Kurukshetra, Ashok Arora belongs to the Punjabi community and has extensive legislative experience. He won from Thanesar this election by defeating Subhash Sudha, the former local bodies minister in the Saini government, by 3,243 votes. He previously served as a cabinet minister and assembly Speaker in Haryana.
Speaking to ThePrint, Arora dismissed all speculation and said the Congress MLAs want Hooda to lead them as the Congress Legislature Party leader and the Leader of Opposition.
Claiming that the Congress has won 37 seats in Haryana “all because of Hooda”, Arora said, “As far as the BJP’s victory is concerned, the Congress has already lodged its complaints to the ECI regarding the EVMs. People wanted to see Hooda as the next CM, but the BJP stole people’s verdict with EVMs.”
Congress MLA from Rohtak Bharat Bhushan Batra said any change in the LoP at this stage would go against party interests.
“Every single MLA in Wednesday’s meeting wanted to see Bhupinder Singh Hooda as their leader. During 10 years of the BJP regime, Hooda has kept the Congress alive and in fighting spirits. People wanted to see Hooda as CM, but the BJP managed to win,” Batra told ThePrint on phone Thursday.
“If the Congress has any caste equations in mind, they can at a later stage make changes, but a majority of MLAs felt that the party should continue with Hooda at this stage because any change now would affect the morale of the party workers and MLAs,” he added.
Asked whether the Hooda loyalist MLAs would oppose any move to appoint someone other than Hooda as the Congress Legislature Party leader, Batra said if the party appoints any of the 32 MLAs who attended Wednesday’s meeting, there may not be any objections. But, he said, the MLAs would like Hooda to head them as the Leader of Opposition.
“If the party chooses to name anyone not among these 32, the decision would be made as the situation arises,” he said further.
The Congress high command has appointed three leaders as observers for the 18 October CLP meeting in Chandigarh. These include former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, senior party leader Ajay Maken, and Punjab assembly Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa.
MLAs who attended meeting at Hooda’s residence & who didn’t
Prominent MLAs who attended the meeting at Hooda’s residence included Badli MLA Kuldeep Vats, Beri MLA Raghuvir Kadian, Rohtak MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra, Narnaund MLA Jassi Petwar, and Thanesar MLA Ashok Arora.
Besides them, Fatehabad MLA Balwan Singh Daulatpuria, Ellenabad MLA Bharat Beniwal, Firozpur Jhirka MLA Mamman Khan, Punhana MLA Mohammad Ilyas, Nuh MLA Aftab Ahmed, Kalayat MLA Vikas Saharan, and Loharu MLA Rajbir Fartia also attended the meeting at Hooda’s residence.
Among women MLAs, Kalanaur MLA Shakuntla Khatak, Julana MLA Vinesh Phogat, Jhajjar MLA Geeta Bhukkal, and Mulana MLA Pooja Chaudhary also attended the meeting. Moreover, state president Chaudhary Udaybhan, who lost the election from Hodal, and Rao Dan Singh, who lost from Mahendragarh, were also present at the meeting.
The five Selja faction MLAs who skipped the meeting include the party’s general secretary Randeep Surjewala’s son Aditya Surjewala (Kaithal), Chander Mohan (Panchkula), Shelly Chaudhary (Naraingarh), Renu Bala (Sadhaura) and Akram Khan (Jagadhri).
Balwan Singh Daulatpuria, who attended Hooda’s meeting, was also considered close to Kumari Selja, but he had been in touch with Hooda before the allotment of party tickets.
“I went to the meeting to thank Deepender Hooda, who addressed meetings in my constituency and helped me win my election. There was no discussion on the 18 October CLP meeting on Wednesday’s get-together,” Daulatpuria told The Print over a phone call.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)