The suspense is not ending as to what will happen if Congress wins in Haryana? Leader of the Legislative Party Bhupendra Singh Hooda is considered to be the natural contender for the post of Chief Minister. Congress has handed over Haryana to him since before the elections. Chaudhary Udaybhan was made the state president as per his choice. Kiran Chaudhary was expelled from the party due to his dislike. Tickets have been distributed in the assembly as per his wish. Due to his stubbornness, a woman candidate of Rahul Gandhi’s choice did not get the ticket. According to a report, out of the 89 seats on which Congress is contesting, 72 seats have been given to candidates of Hooda’s choice and one seat has also been given to CPM with his consent and choice. Despite all this, neither Randeep Surjewala is keeping quiet nor Kumari Shailaja is giving up her stubbornness.
The question is, what is the reason that Surjewala and Shailja are still hopeful? And on whose strength did Surjewala say that it is not necessary to be an MLA to become CM? Keep in mind that both Surjewala and Shailja are Rajya Sabha MPs and Hooda was also a Lok Sabha MP when he became CM for the first time. However, knowledgeable sources say that Rahul Gandhi has not yet given the green signal to Hooda’s name. His name has not been officially announced. It is being said that the reason for this is that there is no consensus in the Hooda camp itself that if Congress wins and gets a chance to become CM, then Bhupendra Singh Hooda will become CM or his son Deepender Singh Hooda will become CM. Old leaders close to Hooda want that senior Hooda should take charge for the first two years and later Deepender should be made CM. But this usually happens in regional parties. It is not possible at all in a party like Congress. This can happen only when Hooda exerts force and breaks the party and forms another alliance.
However, the basis of Surjewala and Shailja’s hopes is also the history of 20 years ago. Some 20 years ago in February 2005, Bhupendra Singh Hooda also became the Chief Minister with the grace of the high command. At that time Bhajan Lal was the state president of Congress and in a way the election was being fought on his face. Just like Hooda is handling everything now, in the 2005 election, Bhajan Lal was handling everything. He often used to say that if the Congress gets more seats than the absolute majority, then it is possible that someone else may become the Chief Minister, but if the seats are less than the majority, then he will become the Chief Minister.
Bhajan Lal’s misfortune was that Congress won too many seats. The majority figure is 46 and Congress won 67 seats. The result was that Bhajan Lal sat in Pandara Park with his 20 supporting MLAs while Sonia Gandhi started the meeting of the legislative party in the Parliament Annexe. At that time the power graph of the Congress high command was very high. A few days ago, the Congress government was formed at the center. So, Sonia Gandhi made Rohtak’s then MP Bhupendra Singh Hooda the CM.