Landslide in Haryana has all in Cong scrambling for CM’s chair

For the Congress, sweeping Haryana is just half the battle won. The bigger test is to pick a chief minister from a queue of aspirants withou...

For the Congress, sweeping Haryana is just half the battle won. The bigger test is to pick a chief minister from a queue of aspirants without spoiling the party.

With 67 out of 90 seats, the race for the top job is down to two equations: Jat vs non-Jat, old vs young.

The Jat-CM angle leans towards former state party chiefs Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Birender Singh and current working president Randip Singh Surjewala, who defeated INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala in Narwana. The non-Jat aspirants are former CM Bhajan Lal and Union Minister of State Kumari Selja.

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The young vs old theory cuts the chase to just two names: Selja and Randip.

Bhajan Lal’s candidature is being backed by general secretary in charge of the state Janardan Dwivedi and AICC treasurer Motilal Vora, who was in charge of the screening committee for ticket distribution in polls.

Selja and Hooda have the support of Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, while Randip’s claim is being backed by AICC general secretary Ambika Soni.

The CLP is slated to meet at Chandigarh on March 1, and Sonia is expected to name the AICC observers for the meeting of newly-elected MLAs late tonight or tomorrow morning.

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Her choice of observers may well be the first indication of who’s the favourite to become chief minister.

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