While the counting of votes for the Haryana Assembly polls will take place on October 8, the chief ministerial race in the Opposition Congress party has already heated up. Even while polling for all 90 Assembly seats of Haryana was taking place Saturday, senior Congress leaders started claiming that the party would get an “absolute majority” with some of them not shying away from projecting themselves as probable CM candidates. Staking their respective claims for the top post, they however also made a common refrain – that it is the Congress high command that will take the final call on the issue in the event of the party's victory. The leading front-runner in this race is the Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Assembly, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who had been a two-time CM from 2005 till 2014. He has also spearheaded the party's campaign in the Assembly polls and in the recent Lok Sabha elections. “I am not retired yet. It is the Congress party that will form the government. It will be the party high command that will decide who will be the chief minister,” Hooda, 77, says. His bete noire and Sirsa MP Kumari Selja, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and ex-Union minister, is also being seen as a major contender for the CM's post. Apart from being a prominent Dalit face, she is also known for her proximity with the Gandhis. “The Congress cannot rule out my vast experience and my unquestionable loyalty towards the party. Selja is a loyal soldier of the Congress and will always remain with the Congress. Everybody knows the decision about who will be the Congress CM is always taken by the party high command,” says Selja, 62. There is also a buzz in the Congress circles that if Hooda bows out of the CM race, his son and Rohtak MP, Deepender Hooda, would emerge as a “formidable claimant” for the CM's chair. On Selja's bid to flag her “seniority” and “loyalty” to reinforce her CM bid, Deepender says, “Whatever she (Selja) has said, there is nothing wrong in it. There is a proper procedure in Congress. The first priority is for the party to get a majority and form the government. A meeting takes place at the level of party high command, the elected MLAs are consulted and the final decision is taken by the party high command.” In all his poll rallies across the state though, Deepender maintained that “The BJP government is on its way out in Haryana – and the Congress is going to form its government under Bhupinder Singh Hooda's leadership.” After casting his vote in his home turf, Kaithal, on Saturday, Rajya Sabha MP and AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala stuck to his cautious line, saying “Having the CM ambition is not wrong. We will accept the decision taken by Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for CM face”. Surjewala, 57, is considered by his aides as a “dark horse” in the race. Party sources say the state Congress chief and Dalit leader Udai Bhan, a known Hooda loyalist, is also one of the CM aspirants. Sources told The Indian Express that in one of the meetings with the AICC leaders in Delhi, Bhan had also staked his claim if the party would name a Dalit face as the CM. In the course of the Congress's campaign, these leaders had often expressed their CM ambitions while hoping that the party would clinch the polls. While both Hooda and Deepender campaigned intensely along with Bhan across Haryana, Selja and Surjewala divided their time between Haryana and Delhi in this period. For the Lok Sabha polls, Hooda had campaigned across eight Lok Sabha seats for the Congress candidates and in Kurukshetra for the then ally AAP's nominee, but had stayed away from Sirsa, Selja's constituency. On its part, the incumbent BJP has been hitting out at the Congress for “factionalism and infighting” within its ranks. Both Selja and Surjewala had wanted to contest the state Assembly polls, but the Congress leadership did not allow them to do it. Hooda also got the lion's share in ticket distribution, getting the candidates of his choice in 72 seats. A senior Congress leader told The Indian Express, “Claimants can be many, but what matters is who do the elected MLAs want as their leader. Whoever is chosen as the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader is generally considered to be the party high command's choice for the CM's post. The final decision is taken by the high command and everybody will accept it, irrespective of their ambitions.” Another senior Congress leader said, “The party high command is also known to come up with surprises like what happened in the 2005 polls. The party had then won 67 seats and Bhajan Lal was set to be the CM. But, at the last moment Bhupinder Hooda's name was declared as the CM. Anything can happen, but one thing is sure: Hooda is not Bhajan Lal and the high command also knows it.”
