Congress to form govt, party high command to decide on Haryana CM pick: Hooda

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Saturday, 5 October, exuded confidence about the Congress forming government in the state with a comfortable majority and reiterated that the party high command will decide on the CM pick based on the opinions of the legislators.

Voting for the Haryana Assembly polls ended on Saturday evening and the results would be declared on Tuesday. Several exit polls have predicted a clear majority for the Congress in the state where the BJP ruled for two consecutive terms.

"We are forming the government with a comfortable majority," Hooda (77) told reporters at his Rohtak residence.

On the predictions made in exit polls, the senior Congress leader said, "I have been saying that according to our assessment, we are forming the government... the people have decided to bring the Congress to power. There was a wave in favour of our party."

Asked who would be the chief minister if the Congress comes to power, Hooda reiterated that there is a laid down procedure in the party, according to which "the opinion of the MLAs will be sought and the high command will decide".

About Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala also reportedly being aspirants for the chief minister's post, he said one can have aspirations in politics but there is a procedure.

Asked for his comments on BJP leaders claiming that their party will return to power, Hooda quipped, "What else will BJP say? They will come to know once results are out."

During the hustings, the BJP only kept talking about the Congress and did not put the report card of their works in the last 10 years before the people because they had no achievements to show, he said.

"When people sought an account (of the works done) from them, they changed their chief minister. But people decided to change the government," he said referring to the exit polls predictions.

Dubbing the incumbent BJP government in Haryana "non-performing", the Congress leader claimed that corruption and unemployment were at their peak under this dispensation while every section, including farmers, employees, poor, labourers, women and youth, were fed up with them.

This election was also about "achievements of the previous Congress government versus the BJP's failures and their non-performance", Hooda said.

Stressing that Haryana is a state of "kisans, jawans and pehalwan" (farmers, soldiers, wrestlers), the former chief minister alleged that the BJP government ignored all of them.

The farmers were demanding a legal guarantee on MSP, but the BJP did not fulfil their demand. They talked about doubling farmers' income, but doubled their input costs instead, he said.

Everyone saw the treatment the BJP government meted out to "our wrestler daughters... Then they brought Agniveer scheme, which we opposed right from the beginning", Hooda said.

From once being a state which was number one in terms of per capita income, investment and in various other spheres, the state now tops in unemployment while the law-and-order situation has deteriorated and the drug menace has spread its tentacles, he alleged.

"On October 8 when the results are out, we will form government. The Congress will fulfil its promises. When our government was in power, we fulfilled the promises we made in 2005 and in 2009 we fulfilled all the promises," the Congress veteran said.

The two-time former chief minister, who is seeking re-election from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district, had told reporters before going to cast his vote in the morning that the Congress would form the government.

There is a lot of enthusiasm among people, he said, adding the BJP government is a "failure" and people have decided to oust them.