Divided he stands

It may have taken a fortnight to finalise the names but Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is likely to find that...

It may have taken a fortnight to finalise the names but Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is likely to find that forming the Cabinet may have been the easy part. Running it may be another story.

Having ended up tantalisingly short of a majority,after his governments confident claims of a sweeping victory,Hooda has had to accommodate all the seven Independents propping up his ministry and is expected to make space for the four MLAs the Congress has weaned away from Kuldeep Bishnois Haryana Janhit Congress.

What this means is that Hoodas unhappy rivals find themselves out in the cold,and few expect them to recede quietly into the dark. Given the Constitutional provision of restricting the ministry to 15 per cent of the total strength of the House,he is left with hardly any berths in his council of ministers to allot,or any leverage to win over his rivals.

And the list of such rivals isnt short. While the loss of bitter foe Birender Singh to Indian National Lok Dal INLD supremo and former chief minister Om Parkash Chautala in the Assembly elections must have been a relief,former minister Kiran Choudhary and Union minister Kumari Selja remain determined in their opposition to him.

The exclusion of Choudharys name from the first list of Haryana ministers was,in fact,the biggest surprise. Hooda reportedly offered to retain her asminister of state but she insisted on a Cabinet rank and finally the party high command decided to keep her out.

Also a contender for the CMs post,Selja was reined in by the party high command,but is certainly not likely to keep aloof from politics in the state. Nor are MPs like Rao Inderjit Singh.

Other senior leaders like former speaker Raghubir Singh Kadian,Savitri Jindal mother of Naveen Jindal and INLD rebel Sampat Singh,have been left out in the cold. EvenHoodas close aide such as Venod Sharma finds himself out.

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Another factor that Hooda would gnore at his peril is the resurgent INLD and its leader Om Prakash Chautala.