This Article is From Oct 22, 2009

Haryana becomes Congress' headache

New Delhi: Haryana, the state the Congress expected to sweep, has become its major headache. The Congress is five seats short of the halfway mark and making up the numbers may not prove to be a breeze.

To bridge the gap the party is working to get the support of independents, many of them Congress rebels.

The Congress has lost as many as 27 seats, most of them going to the INLD. OP Chautala staged a phenomenal comeback going up by over 20 seats spoiling the party for the Congress despite its second successive win in a state that has traditionally rejected the incumbent.

The Congress now admits complacence hurt the party as it underestimated the opposition.

"Haryana's leadership has been overconfident. Our people were complacent in certain areas. That has harmed us," said B K Hariprasad, General Secretary, Congress.

At a quick glance this is how it stacks up: The Congress is five short. But the support of all seven Independents is not assured. The Congress is thus looking at support from Bhajan Lal and son Kuldeep Bishnoi of the Haryana Janhit Congress (Bhajan Lal), which has six seats.

Congress' Haryana headache
  • Congress 5 short of halfway mark
  • Support of all 7 independents not assured
  • Congress looking at support from Bhajan Lal and son Kuldeep Bishnoi
  • Congress quandary: Bhajan Lal opposed to Hooda as CM
  • Congress cant afford to offend Jats by abandoning Hooda
  • Offer Kuldeep Bishnoi deputy CM
  • Hooda rival, Kumari Selja meets Sonia Gandhi
  • Hooda in Delhi lobbying for support, says he will win over independents
But there is a problem: Bhajan Lal is reported to be opposed to Bhupinder Singh Hooda as chief minister. And the Congress can ill-afford to offend the powerful Jats by abandoning Hooda.

According to reports, among the options being explored by the Congress is the offer of the post of Deputy Chief Minister to Kuldeep Bishnoi. Bishnoi has said he has received feelers and indicated that he is keeping his options open.

While Hooda, who started the day playing a relaxed game of badminton, is now in Delhi lobbying for support and asserting that he will make up the numbers by winning over Independents, his party colleague and rival, Selja, met the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Hooda said the Congress was not overconfident and hoped it would form the government, even though it had fallen short of seats. On being asked about the Jats moving away with the projection of Selja, Hooda said, "We will look into the reasons."

At 40 seats, the Congress is not the only party scrambling for support of Independents and others. They are also being wooed by the INLD, which at 32 seats, fancies it is within striking range of the 45-seat halfway mark.

It is a resurgent Om Prakash Chautala's Indian National Lok Dal that has spoilt what would otherwise have been a perfect day for the Congress, which swept Arunachal Pradesh and kept Maharashtra.

At one point it seemed that the Congress would fall well short of the half-way mark in the 90-seat Assembly. It was only as counting progressed that the scale started tipping the Congress' way, and it got closer to the majority mark, at times looking as though it would even cross it. But it stopped short.

Asked how calculations had gone awry, Hooda, earlier in the day, chose to talk statistics instead pointing out that "we have created history". Incidentally, if the Congress does form government, it will indeed script a bit of history by becoming the first party to retain power in Haryana.

But not if Chautala can help it. Buoyed by his party's performance he made clear he wanted to be chief minister. "People have voted us to power not for us to sit in the Opposition...We will be in touch with other Opposition parties to form the government. It was the BJP that broke the alliance in the past, we do not know what prompted that decision, but political decisions can always be reversed," he said. The BJP has four seats.

Thursday night and Friday through to the weekend will be crucial in Haryana.

The Congress - Hooda in particular - have scraped through by the skin of their teeth and with some outside help. But with Chautala, a past-master at defections, throwing up a challenge, the Congress will have its work cut out.
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