Hooda crowned CM, Bhajan home alone

March 07, 2005

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday cleared the name of senior leader and Member of Parliament Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the new Chief Minister of Haryana. A sulking Bhajan Lal boycotted the meeting of the legislature party along with some his hardcore supporters.

According to legislators who were present at the CLP meeting held at the Parliament Annexe in Delhi, the high command didn't even use the charade of projecting this as a majority view as the word was out that Mr Bhajan Lal commanded the maximum support. Mr Janardan Dwivedi, general secretary in charge of the state, at the very outset told the meeting that Ms Sonia Gandhi wanted Mr Hooda to be the Chief Minister.

The MLAs had by then reconciled to the decision and the main contender, Mr Bhajan Lal, had chosen not even to be present at the meeting. Nineteen more MLAs, who could muster the courage to protest their displeasure, chose to remain absent. The other MLAs among the 47 present, who too were opposed to the decision, chose not to register their disagreement as Mr Bhajan Lal, who was mainly opposed to Mr Hooda, chose to stay aloof.

Supporters of some other chief ministerial aspirants like Chaudhary Birendra Singh and Samsher Singh Surjewala, however, told reporters that the high command's decision to thrust its choice upon them was in bad taste. Asked about the factors that helped Mr Hooda, one senior MLA told The Pioneer, "No factors work in the Congress. Mr Ahmed Patel was supporting Mr Hooda and that is more important than the support of MLAs."

Congress sources don't expect Mr Bhajan Lal to create a crisis immediately but admit that he would try to create problems after some time. They feel that the decision of 20 MLAs to boycott the meeting in Delhi was not an ordinary development and that certainly shows a big chunk of legislators did not approve of the high command's manipulations.

Supporters of Mr Bhajan Lal also raised slogans against Ms Gandhi, claiming that their leader had the support of 41 MLAs. They said it was because of Mr Lal's efforts that the Congress has returned to power and now he was being sidelined by "courtiers".

Mr Lal too said he won't accept the post of Governor as a consolation prize.

Mr Hooda's name was proposed by Ms Kartara Devi and seconded by Chaudhary Birendra Singh and several others. Mr Hooda is likely to be sworn in on Saturday in Chandigarh. Mr Hooda, who is an MP from Rohtak, was the Haryana PCC president and an MLA till some months back. Congress leaders argue that Jats had supported the Congress in a big way this time and the party wanted to install a Jat Chief Minister keeping the next parliamentary election in mind.

Mr Hooda, who promised to take all factions together after his election, is a fourth time member of Lok Sabha. In the run-up to the parliamentary elections in may last year, he had been saying that he would "come to Chandigarh via Delhi." The assertion was repeatedly made by him to silence his detractors who claimed that by being elected to the Lok Sabha he was out of the race for the state Chief Minister.

An agriculturist and advocate by profession, the 58-year leader had first created a sensation by defeating Haryana strongman Devi Lal, father of outgoing Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls. He repeated the feat in 1996 and 1998 parliamentary elections. Mr Hooda comes from a family with a political background. His father Ranbir Singh was a member of the committee appointed to draft the Constitution of the country.