Cong gears up for elections

While Hooda has now been allowed to continue as PCC president for the coming Assembly elections, a 12-member election committee, which includes among others former chief minister Bhajan Lal and party MP Avatar Singh Bhadana, has been constituted to accommodate his rivals in the state. Party sources said that moves were also afoot to induct Bhajan Lal, a known rival of Hooda, into the Congress Working Committee CWC, in a bid to rein in his cooperation.

Other members of the election committee are former CLP leader Birendra Singh, who is the convenor, ex-PCC presidents S S Surjewala and Harpal Singh, CLP leaderKartari Devi, AICC secretary Kumari Selja, former MP Rao Inderjit Singh, C L Sharma, Khurshid Ahmed and O P Jindal.

The party has also constituted a separate state campaign committee with Surjewala as chairman and Rao Inderjit Singh as convenor. Other members of the planned 40-member committee will be announced later.

The new 8220;compromise formula8221; was hammered out at a late night meeting yesterday between AICC general secretary incharge of Haryana Pranab Mukherjee and senior state leaders such as B S Hooda, Bhajan Lal, Birendra Singh, S S Surjewala and A S Bhadana.

Opinion veered round to the view that the only way to retrieve the party8217;s fortunes in the state was to continue with Hooda but give a fair say to his rivals in the faction-ridden state unit in the task of selection of candidates and planning the party8217;s campaign. 8220;To replace Hooda, a Jat leader, now that the polls had been announced with a non-Jat would only create further confusion8230; the change should have been carried out much before,8221;a senior state leader said.

Meanwhile, Tamil Maanila Congress leader G K Moopanar today met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the midst of reports of an understanding between the two parties over government formation in Pondicherry and an eventual merger.

While Moopanar described the meeting as a 8220;courtesy call8221;, party sources said that the developments in Pondicherry came up for discussion in the one-to-one meeting between the two leaders. The TMC has indicated its willingness to withdraw support from the DMK government in Pondicherry and ally with the Congress to form an alternate government with the support of the AIADMK.

Moopanar8217;s meeting with Sonia also assumes significance in the light of the latter8217;s reported willingness to accept him and his party back into the Congress fold.