One party has seven CMs already

Even now, the Congress is way ahead in terms of optimism, enthusiasm, sheer size and strength of the campaign and in every other aspect of electioneering. The voters say they ‘‘prefer the Congress, but.’’ It is this ‘‘but’’, which is all about receding faith. The ‘‘but’’ means a small percentage of diminishing votes for the hand symbol.

The electorate is resentful of Central policies, which they believe, have brought down the price of ‘‘kapas’’ or raw cotton. Small farmers say that they have been ruined because they are not receiving more than Rs 1,600 per quintal while they earned Rs 2,800 only last year.

In Adampur’s Congress bastion kapas kisan, Bhoop Singh will not vote for constituency’s best-known face, former chief minister, Bhajan Lal. Add ‘‘mehengair’’ to the kapas despair and you have a cocktail of outrage against the Congress in this khetibari province.

The 32 rebels in the fray have launched a distorted campaign against the party they have abandoned. Some have opened communication channels with Chautala’s political strategists.

Worse, everybody knows that the rebels have been loyalists of one Congress faction or the other. For example, pro-Bhajan Lal rebels are fighting official nominees in three assembly seats of Hisar district. It raises questions whether Lal did enough to dissuade them. Or is it that Lal himself is interested in rebels causing discomfiture?

After all, if the Congress has a huge majority, party chief Sonia Gandhi will have a free hand in choosing the chief minister. And if it doesn’t, then the politician with the maximum influence over the elected MLAs may earn the right to choose himself.

In fact, quite a few rebels are spending serious money on electioneering. They could be much more than a nuisance in eight seats. In three, Hansi, Ambala and Barwala, they have sneaked ahead of the official nominees at least in popular rating.

The smugness is too evident in the Congress campaign. Otherwise, why would every Congress nominee in Rohtak campaign that they would make the district’s Lok Sabha MP Bhupinder Singh Hooda the chief minister? In Haryana, this chief ministerial dream is fuelling controversy. It looks as though eight different parties are waving the same tiranga.

In Narwana, Congress workers say that they are working for ‘‘Chief Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala.’’ Surjewala is pitted against Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and will be a serious contender for the top job in Chandigarh if he slays the giant. Adampur has openly declared the old war-horse Bhajan Lal their CM.

Some factions want Sir Chhotu Ram’s descendent, Birender Singh to wear the crown. There is talk of the late Union Minister Chaudhury Dalbir Singh’s daughter, Kumari Selja (herself a union minister of state) to be anointed for the top job as the compromise nominee.

Confusion does not end here. Outside the Jindal group’s factory in Hisar, Congress activists aver that their leader, industrialist O.P.Jindal is the next CM. Jindal’s son, Navin Jindal is an MP from Kurukshetra. Even supporters of former Haryana Pradesh Congress president, Dharampal Singh Malik, are urging Gohana voters to buy a CM with that precious vote.

In rural Hassangarh, Dinesh Kumar stops his milk-van to put in a word of advice, ‘‘The early bird does catch the worm but if it arrives before daybreak, the snake might swallow it.’’ That’s meant for the Congress.