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Journalism of Courage
The Congress has obtained letters of support from six of the seven Independent MLAs in Haryana,and will stake claim to form the government tomorrow.
The development came even as the party negotiated hard with former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal after falling six seats short of the majority mark of 46 in the House of 90.
The septuagenarian leader whose Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) has won six seats,was said to be adamant on his price: removal of Bhupinder Singh Hooda as chief minister. The HJC was also demanding the post of Deputy Chief Minister for Bhajan Lals son Kuldeep Bishnoi,and a central Cabinet berth for Bhajan Lal himself.
Despite leading the Congress to a spectacular 67 seats as the state unit chief in the 2005 elections,Bhajan Lal had been overlooked for chief ministership in favour of Hooda. Two years later,he formed the HJC along with Kuldeep Bishnoi. The Congress expelled him in 2008.
The Congress,however,was not inclined to sacrifice Hooda,whose performance as chief minister has the approval of party chief Sonia Gandhi,sources said. Hooda himself spent all afternoon and evening trying to win over the Independents an effort that bore fruit late at night.
The Independents were initially assumed to be a tough pool for Hooda to fish in four of them being Congress rebels whom he had denied tickets,and remaining three being former associates of Om Prakash Chautala.
Chautalas Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has done unexpectedly well,winning 31 seats. Its ally,the Shiromani Akali Dal,has got one seat. The BJP,which broke with the INLD before the elections,has four,and the BSP one.
Early in the evening,Chautala demanded the first invite to form the government. He asked for Hoodas resignation on moral grounds for the fall in the Congresss numbers from 67 to 40,and reminded the Congress that it had declined to stake claim at the Centre after the 1989 Lok Sabha elections when despite being the single largest party,it had clearly lost the peoples mandate.
It is time to follow in the footsteps of Rajiv Gandhi, Chautala said. The Governor should invite the Opposition that has emerged as the largest group. He added that despite the pre-election falling out,the INLD would not mind approaching the BJP,where he had good friends.
Even while the HJC negotiated a deal with the Congress,Kuldeep Bishnoi told The Indian Express that his party was open to having an alliance with any party. I have been contacted by both the Congress and the INLD. We will take a final decision tomorrow at a meeting of our party MLAs.
Congress sources said that even though the party leadership preferred the support of Bhajan Lal to the more uncertain backing of Independents,Hoodas continuance as chief minister could be negotiated.
While most of Hoodas rivals for the post Birendra Singh,Mange Ram Gupta and A C Choudhury have lost,a few less formidable candidates like Kumari Selja and Kiran Choudhury were learnt to have thrown their hats in the ring. Selja called on the Congress president on Thursday evening.
Emerging from 10 Janpath,Selja said the decision on the next CM would be taken by the party high command. Asked if she was in the race,Selja said,Naam to chalte rahte hain (names keep floating around).
