Ahead of poll, Haryana politics getting Hooda-centric
Ravinder Saini
Rohtak, June 23
With Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry joining the BJP and the changing of the political arithmetic since the Lok Sabha poll, former CM and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Hooda has, it seems, come to the centre of political affairs in the state as not only Opposition parties — BJP, JJP and INLD — but also his detractors within the Congress are leaving no chance to target him on some pretexts.
The BJP today sounded the bugle for the Assembly poll by organising a felicitation ceremony for its ministers and newly elected MPs in Hooda’s stronghold Rohtak. All leaders, including CM Nayab Singh Saini, present on the occasion focussed their address on decrying Hooda over various political issues.
“Everyone has his/ her own agenda for carrying out verbal attacks on Hooda as the Congress has emerged stronger in Haryana in the Lok Sabha elections under his leadership. Four of the five newly elected Congress MPs, barring Selja, owe allegiance to Hooda’s camp. The BJP leaders take Hooda on their radar as he is the strongest Opposition leader in the state. It will benefit the BJP if they manage to weaken Hooda in some way before the Assembly poll,” said Jitendra Bhardwaj, a political observer.
He maintained this reason drove the BJP to choose Rohtak to sound the bugle for the Assembly elections in a bid to create a psychological pressure on him and his supporters.
The BJP’s felicitation function of its ministers and MPs today was virtually a show of strength in Hooda’s citadel. Moreover, the way that Hooda cornered the BJP government over the deteriorating law and order situation was also forcing it to train its gun on Hooda, he added.
“Apart from other burning issues like unemployment, inflation, Agniveer etc, the rising crime graph is also another major issue in Haryana, which adversely affects not only the business community, but also the common man as gangsters sitting abroad are demanding extortion and also plotting criminal activities on non-fulfilment of demands. People have now started recalling the Hooda government when the police killed many criminals in encounters and maintained peace in the state,” said Ashok Kumar, another political commentator.
He maintained that besides BJP, the JJP and INLD leaders were targeting Hooda prominently as compared to other leaders as they know that as long as Hooda remains strong, their future appears to be bleak in the state. The vote bank of JJP and INLD is mainly farming communities, which stood united with the Congress in Lok Sabha poll just because of Hooda, he asserted.
Similarly, Hooda’s detractors in the Congress — Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala — also do not forget to launch veiled attacks on Hooda when the question of Chief Ministership arises if the Congress comes to power in the state.
Cong came out stronger under Hooda
Everyone has their own agenda for carrying out verbal attacks on Hooda as the Congress has emerged stronger in Haryana in the Lok Sabha elections under his leadership. Four of the five newly elected Congress MPs, barring Selja, are aligned with the Hooda camp. — Jitendra Bhardwaj, political observer
