The Congress is set to form government in three states. But while the party has swept Arunachal Pradesh and will return to power in Maharashtra in alliance with the NCP, Haryana poses a challenge.
The Congress is set to form government in three states. But while the party has swept Arunachal Pradesh and will return to power in Maharashtra in alliance with the NCP, Haryana poses a challenge.
The Congress has won 40 seats in the state, six short of majority in a 90-member house. The party’s tally has dropped from 67 in 2004, a rude jolt to Bhupinder Singh Hooda who is hoping to become the second Congress chief minister after Bansi Lal to win consecutive terms in the state.
On the other hand, a resurgent Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), led by Om Prakash Chautala, has made a comeback by winning 31 seats — INLD won only nine seats in the 2004 assembly polls and failed to open its account in the last Lok Sabha election.
The picture in the state could have been different had the BJP not severed its alliance with the INLD. “There is nothing that can be done about it now, but the fact is that together we could have got it past the Congress,” said BJP MP Chandan Mitra.
Bhajan Lal’s Janhit Party has won six seats, the BJP 4 and the independents 6, while one seat each went to BSP and SAD. Theoretically, all of them can gang up with the INLD to form the next government — Chautala has already said that he will stake claim to form the next government. However, the independents, mostly rebel Congressmen, are likely to gravitate towards their old party.
For Hooda, the biggest worry, however, is opposition from within the party, especially when the Jat vote has started going back to Chautala. Also, the results may prompt the Congress high command to review its policy of letting him have his way.
In the last five years, the Congress leadership virtually looked away as Hooda systematically undermined and undercut his rivals in the party. He had his way in the distribution of tickets, and the bulk of the candidates were his supporters.
His detractors have started putting the blame for the party’s poor showing on him. “If there is anybody who should be held responsible it is Hooda. He was given a free run, and a majority of the tickets were given to his supporters. Look at the mess he landed us in?” said a former minister in the Hooda government.
Though Chaudhray Birendar Singh, one of Hooda’s main challengers, has lost, his other opponents — Kiran Thakur, Rao Inderjit Singh and Avtaar Singh Bhadana — are likely to mount pressure on the Congress leadership to not make him the chief minister again.
But the Congress has no such worries in Arunachal Pradesh. The party has won 38 seats in the 60-member House - three of its candidates, including chief minister Doreen Hindu, were elected unopposed.
Hindu says the people have voted for development. “I fought on the development plank and that’s what the electorate voted for,” he said.
The Trinamool Congress also opened its account in Arunachal with two seats, a fact which seemed to have come as a surprise to even Mamata Banerjee.
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