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Journalism of Courage
If the ruling Congress in Haryana has suffered a drop of 7.3 per cent in vote share as compared to the Lok Sabha elections barely six months ago,a lot of it has to do with the party itself.
The partys campaign remained fragmented and disorganised,with almost all senior leaders functioning on their own. The only campaigner for the Congress pan Haryana was Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda,who apart from solo campaigns,accompanied all senior central leaders like Sonia Gandhi,Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi on their visits to the state.
The second senior-most leader of the party,Finance Minister Birender Singh,who has always remained daggers drawn with Hooda,was confined to his constituency,Uchana Kalan,where he faced the might of INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala. He held stray meetings in adjoining constituencies but was neither invited by Hooda to campaign elsewhere nor did he invite the Chief Minister to campaign for him. In the end he lost to Chautala by a narrow margin.
The other important leaders included Tourism and Forest Minister Kiran Choudhary,who remained confined to Bhiwani district,particularly Tosham,from where she won. Transport Minister Randeep Surjewala,another leader,kept to Kaithal while Union minister Kumari Selja visited only a few constituencies to campaign for candidates nominated by her.
The Congresss internal dissensions did not obviously go unnoticed by voters. While others were not so vocal,Birender Singh openly said that he would like to be the Chief Minister. Most of the leaders,however,made it clear that they were not in step with Hooda and were rarely seen with him on a common platform.
It was therefore not very surprising that even the rallies addressed by Manmohan or Sonia were poorly attended.
For HJC,its six may be a match-winner
RAJENDRA KHATRY
To Perhaps the utter dismay of Bhupinder Singh Hooda,Bhajan Lal and son Kuldeep Bishnoi have emerged as kingmakers after the fractured Haryana verdict.
With six seats in the Assembly,the Haryana Janhit Congress may be able to arm-twist both the Congress and Indian National Lok Dal INLD,with each trying desperately to reach the magic figure of 45 to be able to form the government.
While only six of Bishnois 87 candidates won,with mother Jasma Devi too losing to Congress nominee Sampat Singh from Nalwa,it may be enough in the new political equations.
The Congress,which has won 40 of the 90 seats,needs five more to retain power. The INLD,which won 32 seats,including one by its ally Shiromani Akali Dal SAD,needs 14.
This suits Bishnoi,who has never hidden his desire to be the chief minister,quite well. Whatever deal the HJC strikes with either of the two groups is likely to depend upon which party is ready to concede more of its demands.
I have been receiving feelers for an alliance from both INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Bishnoi said on Thursday,adding that his party and the seven Independent candidates would play a key role in formation of the next government and that his party was open to supporting either side. I have called a meeting of my party MLAs tomorrow at Delhi to decide on our course of action.
