Bansi stays away, son attends merger

Upbeat after its resounding victory in Haryana 8212; nine out of 10 Lok Sabha seats 8212; the Congress registered another major win in the...

Upbeat after its resounding victory in Haryana 8212; nine out of 10 Lok Sabha seats 8212; the Congress registered another major win in the state today following a merger with Bansi Lal8217;s Haryana Vikas Party.

The high command seemed to have worked hard at making the ceremony a show of unity among its key leaders 8212; all of them nursing chief ministerial ambitions. But the effort seemed incomplete, given the absence of two state leaders, Union Minister of State Selja Kumari and legislature party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Bansi Lal also stayed away and his son, Surender Singh, a former Lok Sabha member, stood proxy for him with the entire HVP executive signing the merger document.

Haryana Congress president Bhajan Lal said: 8216;8216;I am very happy that our long separated friends have come back. We will gain strength from this merger.8217;8217; He went on to laud party president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, in charge of the state, for this 8216;8216;glorious decision8217;8217;.

The new-comers, he declared, would get 8216;8216;full respect and would face no discrimination8217;8217;. 8216;8216;Congress is like Ganga, in which anyone who comes becomes sacred,8217;8217; he said, implying that HVP members had undergone this purification process.

A reporter, meanwhile, reminded Bhajan Lal that a few days ago he had declared that Bansi Lal will not be admitted into the Congress. Dwivedi intervened to state that this was the case till Sonia considered the matter and took a decision.

This development makes the polarisation of the anti-Om Prakash Chautala forces complete, leaving the BJP on the margins. The saffron party, striving to emerge as a main player in the state, had pinned its hopes on a merger of the HVP into its own ranks to gain a foothold in rural areas.

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The HVP, which had been on the downslide following the Lok Sabha rout, instead chose to return to the Congress after 13 years of separate existence.

The HVP has a state-wide presence with a strong base in Bansi Lal8217;s home district Bhiwani. On the one hand, the merger would infuse fresh blood in to the Congress, while on the other it would also intensify internal rivalries.