Ultimately, after a long wait, Congress has declared its Haryana Lok Sabha candidates’ names. The list, apparently delayed due to alleged infighting within the party’s State unit, seems to bear the upper and sole deciding free hand of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
If we analyse the congress’ list of candidates for Haryana Lok Sabha seats released on Thursday, it seems crystal clear that congress high command has surrendered to former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition, Bhupender Singh Hooda. In the name of survey and winnability Hooda has succeeded in sidelining and downsizing his rivals in the party. Out of the ten Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, the Congress on April 25 released its list of candidates for eight out of the nine Lok Sabha seats it is contesting in Haryana. Out of these 8 seats, Hooda camp got 7 and only one seat of Sirsa has gone to another faction. Kurukshetra seat has already been given to INDIA block partner, Aam Aadmi Party. The Congress party has kept on hold the Gurgaon seat, where Hooda is supporting the Actor Raj Babbar, however the former state minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav is trying to capture the same. But to negate the claim of Ajay Yadav, Hooda has already barricaded the road for Yadav by inducting another Yadav (Rao Dan Singh), his close associate, from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat. With this step Hooda has succeeded in killing two birds with one stone. Firstly, he has dashed former Chief Minister Chaudhary Bansi Lal’s legacy and given a jolt to his long-time rival – former Minister Kiran Chaudhary by snatching the Lok Sabha ticket of Kiran’s daughter Shruti Chaudhary, a granddaughter of late Chaudhary Bansi Lal and secondly neutralized the claim of Captain Ajay Yadav by already giving share to Yadav community, extending ticket to Rao Dan Singh, a Yadav, as only one seat was to be offered to this community out of 10 LS seats according to social engineering.
It is also surprising that former union Minister Birender Singh’s son, Brijender Singh, a former BJP MP from Hisar, who had just joined congress party by leaving BJP with an assurance of Lok Sabha ticket either from Hisar or Sonipat, has found his name omitted from Congress’ list.
Instead, the party has fielded from the Hisar seat three-time former Hisar MP Jai Prakash (JP) considered to be a confidant of Hooda.
To cut down the claim of Birender Singh on Sonipat seat , Satpal Brahamachari, a Brahmin, another confidant of Hooda, the party’s Haridwar Assembly constituency candidate in 2022, has been named party’s candidate for the Sonipat seat. Brahmchari’s nomination will not only downsize and close the way of Hooda’s long-time competitor Birender Singh, but also work as a bonanza for Hooda’s son Deepender Hooda, as through Satpal Brahmchari, he will polarize Brahmin votes in Rohtak. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Deepender Hooda lost the Rohtak seat to BJP’s Arvind Kumar Sharma with a thin margin of 7500 votes.
Varun Choudhary, former State Congress president Phool Chand Mullana’s son and Mulana MLA, has been named the candidate for the Ambala seat, reserved for the Scheduled Castes. Mullana had been a close associate of Hooda.
Congress general secretary and former Union Minister Kumari Selja, the remaining lone opponent of Hooda in the party, has been fielded from Sirsa, a Scheduled Caste-reserved seat. However, Selja has been time and again denying to contest Lok Sabha election and instead was willing to go to Haryana assembly as a contender for CM Post. Her supporters are regularly sloganeering in her favour claiming her as ‘Bhavi CM’, but here also, Hooda, by forcing her to fight Lok Sabha election, has got rid of her over the CM post and remained the sole claimant of Chief Ministership. Hooda has win and win in both ways. If Selja wins Lok Sabha seat, automatically she will not remain a contender for Chief Ministership and her claim for CM post will be slackened if she loses.
Divyanshu Budhiraja, who has got State Youth Congress president post with the support of Hooda, has been pitted against former CM Manohar Lal Khattar in Karnal. Budhiraja also comes from the Punjabi community. But the political thinkers are surprised as fielding a weak candidate may enhance the winning chances of Khattar.
Two-time Minister and five-time MLA Mahendra Pratap has been given the chance to fight the Faridabad seat with the blessings of Hooda camp.
The most shocked are Birender Singh and Kiran Chaudhary, as they were claiming themselves as high altitude fliers and were very proud of their wings, but it seems that the High Command has chopped off their wings. Now what shall be their reaction will show whether they will jump over the party barricades or silence down after fluttering for a while like a frog.
Jag Mohan Thaken is a Senior Journalist, Columnist & Political Analyst, views are personal
