End of the road for Bhajan Lal?

NEW DELHI: Haryana strongman Bhajan Lal's attempt at muscle flexing has come a cropper, with Congress President Sonia Gandhi losing no time in accepting his resignation as the state PCC chief. On Saturday, Bhajan Lal had gone public, threatening to resign in protest against the alleged discrimination by the party.

Officially, the party made only a cryptic one-line announcement informing the media that Bhajan Lal's resignation had been accepted. Privately, senior party leaders were of the view that this signals the high command's resolve to call his bluff and it could also mark the end of the road for Bhajan Lal. The former Haryana Chief Minister has never been able to reconcile himself to the fact that the Congress leadership preferred Bhupinder Singh Hooda over him when it came to choosing the new chief minister for the state after the last assembly elections. The party's attempt to mollify him by making him the state PCC chief, and appointing his elder son as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state and sending his younger son Kuldeep Bishnoi to the Lok Sabha has failed to have the desired affect. "Short of handing over the party, we have given him everything.
What more can the party do for him? " asked a party general secretary.