New Delhi, June 4
The Congress has made up its mind that it will be “cash in” on the gains of the resounding win registered by the party in Haryana during the just-ended Lok Sabha polls. The party is keen to seek an early election to the legislative Assembly.
In all likelihood, polls in Haryana will be held in October instead of the scheduled time in January/February next year. This means polls to the state Assembly is no more than four months away. The Haryana Congress and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda have been informed about the decision to seek an early poll, a senior member of the party said today, adding that, the polls will be held alongside those in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
Firstly, this will ensure that the “goodwill” shown by the people during the Lok Sabha polls is replicated in the Assembly, where the Congress is already in power. Secondly, it will give very little time for the battered and bruised the BJP-INLD alliance to re-group after they were wiped out in the Lok Sabha polls.
The two alliance partners are already blaming each other for the debacle. The state unit of the BJP has been expressing reservations against the INLD.
The Congress believes that there is a wave in favour of the party in Haryana. In 2004, it had nine MP’s out of 10 from the state and the BJP (then, it was not in alliance with the INLD) had only one seat.
This time Bhajan Lal’s party, the Haryana Janhit Congress, won one seat in Hissar while the Congress won nine. Sources in the Haryana Congress confirmed that “the party was gearing up for polls”. A formal request will be made to the Election Commission (EC) to club the Haryana polls with other two states. Since there is an advancement of just three months, the Congress believes the EC should not object.
One major reason is the fact that the Congress won in 59 out of the 90 Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha polls. It has a 41.73 per cent vote share. At present the party has 65 sitting MLAs.
