Why Congress lets Hooda call the shots in Haryana: From picking candidates to scuttling AAP alliance

In the recent Lok Sabha polls, Hooda managed to get eight candidates of his choice out of the state’s 10 seats – including his son Deepender Hooda (Rohtak), Varun Chaudhry (Ambala), Jai Prakash (Hisar), Satpal Brahmchari (Sonipat), Rao Dan Singh (Bhiwani-Mahendragarh), Mahendra Pratap Singh (Faridabad), Raj Babbar (Gurgaon) and Divyanshu Buddhiraja (Karnal) – with his bete noire Kumari Selja contesting the Sirsa seat. The Congress left one seat, Kurukshetra, for its INDIA ally AAP.

In the polls, the Congress and the BJP won five seats each. Of the winning Congress candidates, four were Hooda’s picks including Deepender, Satpal, Varun and Jai Prakash, with the fifth one being Selja.

Hooda faced criticism from a Congress section for “wrong candidate selection”, but the point remained that the party increased its vote share by 15% as compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

This time, as regards the selection of candidates for the 90 Assembly seats, Congress sources told The Indian Express that “Hooda has got a majority of candidates of his choice. At least 70 candidates are such who are backed by Hooda or his son Deepender”. During several meetings held by the Congress high command in this regard, Selja and another Hooda detractor Randeep Singh Surjewala also gave the lists of their recommended candidates, but the party leadership chose to accept Hooda’s nominees for most of the seats.

The proposed alliance between the Congress and the AAP did not materialise mainly due to Hooda’s stiff opposition, even though other senior party leaders including Selja, Birender Singh and Capt Ajay Singh Yadav were also against it.

“It was Hooda, who had put his foot down and vociferously opposed any alliance with the AAP. Despite the pulls and pressures and even Rahul Gandhi’s inclination to have some kind of seat-sharing arrangement with allies including AAP or Samajwadi Party, Hooda did not budge and the alliance did not happen,” a senior party leader told The Indian Express.

Hooda’s clout has continued to rise since 2005, when he was known for his proximity to then party president Sonia Gandhi.

After getting the better of then Haryana Congress old guard led by Bhajan Lal and fitting in the party’s long-term plan to overshadow the other prominent Jat leader, INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala, Hooda took charge as the CM after the party’s resounding win in the 2005 polls. Bhajan Lal sulked, but soon relented after several leaders from his camp deserted him to side with Hooda whose rise put an end to the dominance of “the politics of Lals (Devi Lal, Bansi Lal, Bhajan Lal)” in Haryana.

Hooda established himself as the Congress’s Jat face and completed his full term despite facing dissension from the Bhajan Lal camp. He emerged as the party’s CM face in the 2009 polls. The Congress got 40 seats, falling short of the majority mark by six seats. Party insiders say it was Hooda’s political acumen and skills that he brought seven Independents, including Gopal Kanda, on board to form the government again. It was the first time since 1972 that Haryana saw the incumbent party returning to power.

“The BJP’s campaign against the Congress and Hooda over the Robert Vadra-DLF land deal issue led to the party’s rout in 2014 (it slipped to 15 seats, behind INLDs’ 19) and the BJP’s victory, but Hooda’s proximity to the party high command was not affected,”, another Congress leader said.

The BJP’s campaign in Haryana in every election over the last several years has been centred on its opposition to Hooda. Even within the Congress, his detractors have gone after him for promoting his son Deepender at the cost of the party’s interests, accusing him of “reducing Congress to a Bapu-Beta party”, but Hooda has managed to keep most of state party leaders on his side.

“Hooda was part of the Congress’s G-23 dissident group against the party high command, yet he sailed through unscathed. He enjoys good relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The manner in which all his detractors, Ashok Tanwar, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Kiran Choudhry etc had been sidelined over the last 15 years has made him even stronger in the party,” another senior state Congress leader said.

“Ahead of 2019 Assembly polls, while addressing a rally in Gohana, Hooda had openly declared himself as the CM face, with or without Congress, but no action was taken against him. Despite a strong Modi wave, Congress led by Hooda bagged 31 seats against BJP’s 40. Had Hooda got his way in 2019 candidate selection, the results would have been different and BJP might have not returned to power then.”

Haryana has nearly 27% Jat voters, who play a key role in determining the outcome in about 40 seats. With Chautalas remaining divided, Hooda is widely acknowledged as the “tallest Jat leader” in the state. “The party high command cannot afford to upset Hooda, especially when most of the candidates are of his choice. If most of them win and the party secures a majority, it would be difficult for the high command to ignore Hooda’s claim for the CM post,” said another party leader.

Admitting that “what happens in future cannot be predicted”, he however also said, “Selja is another strong contender for the CM’s post. She is a woman leader from the Dalit community. She is close to the party high command and has registered a thumping victory from Sirsa. But, as the party affairs in-charge Deepak Babaria had been saying it is the high command and the choice of elected MLAs that will finally decide the CM face in the event of the party’s victory in the polls.”