On eve of Haryana CLP meeting, 31 of 37 Congress MLAs huddle at Bhupinder Hooda house

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) leadership has deputed three senior leaders – ex-Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken and Punjab LoP Pratap Singh Bajwa – as the party observers for the Friday meeting.

It, however, could be a tough road ahead for Hooda after the party suffered a major setback in the Assembly polls.

The Congress was confident of ousting the incumbent BJP from power, but the latter again emerged as the victor, winning 48 seats out of 90 as against the Congress’s 37 seats. The Congress’s poor performance was widely attributed to factionalism and infighting in the state unit dominated by Hooda, the LoP in the previous Assembly.

Amid growing dissent against him, both in sections of the Haryana Congress and the AICC, his detractors point out that under his leadership the party lost three consecutive Assembly polls (2014, 2019, 2024) and even failed to get its two official nominees elected to the Rajya Sabha despite having adequate numbers.

With the stage set for the CLP meeting on Friday, the question doing the rounds in the party circles is whether Hooda would be able to retain his position as the CLP leader or not.

About 31 MLAs attended the meeting at Hooda’s residence on Wednesday evening, marking their support to him. One of them told The Indian Express prior to the meeting: “There were numerous phone calls, messages that were sent to the MLAs asking them to reach Hooda’s residence. By tonight, the situation would be clear as to how many are on his side. If he gets a majority of MLAs, it is likely that the party high command will adhere to the MLAs’ wish and he (Hooda) is again chosen as the CLP leader. However, finally the high command will decide whether to continue with him or replace him with somebody else”.

The five who skipped the meeting are Shalley Chaudhary (Naraingarh), Chander Mohan (Panchkula), Aditya Surjewala (Kaithal), Renu Bala (Sadhaura), and Akram Khan (Jagadhari), who are affiliated to Hooda’s rivals and AICC general secretaries Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala.

Hooda later said, “It was an informal meeting. We all met each other. They (MLAs) wanted to come on their own. We had good discussions. Everybody said that we all unitedly fight for the rights and welfare of people of Haryana, of our country. As far as electing the CLP leader is concerned, the meeting will take place at Chandigarh on October 18.”

Congress sources said Selja is supporting Panchkula MLA Chander Mohan’s candidature as the new CLP face. He has been a four-time MLA and ex-deputy CM.

As part of its strategy, the Hooda camp may even back some of his staunch loyalists like Geeta Bhukkal or Ashok Arora for the CLP leader’s post if the party high command blocks his bid.

Sources said the current Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Udai Bhan, too, is likely to face the high command’s wrath in the coming days and would be replaced. A known Hooda follower, Bhan lost from the Hodal seat again this time.

After the party’s shock defeat, only the AICC in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria offered his resignation.

In the review meeting on the poll results called by the AICC leadership last week, Rahul Gandhi had “rapped” the state Congress brass for “keeping self-interest above the party’s interest leading to the setback”, sources said.

Besides Selja, several senior Congress leaders including Shamsher Singh Gogi, Parvinder Singh Pari and the state party’s OBC wing chairman Capt Ajay Singh Yadav openly blamed Hooda and his son and MP Deepender for the party’s defeat.
The rebellion within the Haryana Congress had also cost the party two Rajya Sabha seats in recent years. In the June 2016 Rajya Sabha poll, the Congress suffered cross-voting by its 14 MLAs that led to the defeat of the party-backed Independent candidate RK Anand at the hands of Subhash Chandra.

In June 2022, Ajay Maken also could not make it to the Rajya Sabha as “a cross-vote and an invalid vote” sealed his fate.