Congress' Haryana woes: To make choice between Hooda & others

New Delhi, April 25

The Congress has been in a huddle over streamlining its Haryana unit where the party has plenty of claimants for the top post in the state.

Sources said that former two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been pushing for a change in the state set up and met senior party leaders on Saturday. A day later on Sunday, another top Haryana leader, Khuldeep Bishnoi however, met Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The party has to make a choice between a jat and non-jat in the state, sources said. While Hooda is pushing for the party's state chief post, the leader of Congress Legislature Party (CLP) may then go to a non-jat. Sources indicate that Hooda wants one of his close MLAs to become the CLP.

The party, however, does not want the two posts to go to a single community and in that case Kuldeep Bishnoi may become the Leader of opposition in the state legislature.

According to sources, Bishnoi can be given an important responsibility in the state unit. While he is seen as a contender to head the party in the state, he is more likely to replace Hooda as the Leader of the Opposition. Hooda is being tipped as the next Haryana Congress president in place of Kumari Selja, who may be nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

A two-time Chief Minister, Hooda was also the state party chief from 1996 to 2001.

Sources indicated that the Congress high command has advised the leaders of the Haryana unit to face all the challenges unitedly.

In the 2019 state Assembly elections, the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 40 seats in the 90-member House, while Congress got 31 seats. Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) got 10 seats.

Due to this, both the BJP and the Congress tried to persuade the independents and the JJP for a post-poll alliance, but the former succeeded and formed the government.