Bhupinder Singh Hooda to be Haryana chief minister

The Congress high command announced, on October 25, 2009, that Bhupinder Singh Hooda will take the oath as the chief minister of Haryana.The Haryana Congress Legislature Party had left it to Congress president Sonia Gandhi to choose the Chief Minister.

The Congress party has staked claim to form government in Haryana after having managed to get the support of all seven Independent MLAs.

The support of the seven Independent MLAs gives the Congress the majority required in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the results of the elections to which came out two days ago.

The Congress – which became the biggest single party in the hung Assembly with a total of 40 seats – required six more MLAs to get a simple majority in the House.

The seven Independent legislators gave their letters of support at first to the Congress and then met Jagannath Pahadia, Governor of Haryana, to inform him of their support to the Congress.

The support offered by the Independents legislators is “unconditional,” according to Randeep Singh Surjewala, Haryana’s Minister for Power Minister.

The Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) – led by former chief minister Bhajan Lal and   Kuldeep Bishnoi, Bhajan Lal’s son – said their party would be a part of the government to be formed.

Bhajan Lal and Kuldeep Bishnoi had left the Congress about 2 years ago. The Haryana Janhit Congress has 6 legislators in the new House.

Phool Chand Mullana, president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, had, on Friday, met Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia to stake the Congress party’s claim to form government. The Congress is the single biggest party in the new Assembly and the precedent is that the single biggest party be invited to form government, Mullana had told after he met the Governor.

Phool Chand Mullana was himself defeated in the Mullana constituency.

Om Prakash Chautala, the leader of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the main Opposition, charged the Congress with “horse-trading” and requested the Governor not to invite the Congress to form government. The people of Haryana, Chautala added, had voted in favour of 50 non-Congress candidates in the 90-member House.

The Indian National Lok Dal has won 31 seats.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who has stepped down as Chief Minister and is now the caretaker Chief Minister, stresses that he is confident of the Congress forming the next government.

In the present election, the Congress fared much lower than its expectations. The Congress had won 67 seats in the Assembly elections held in February 2005 – which as 27 seats more than what it got this time around.