Neither tired nor retired; party will take call on CM face after Haryana polls: Bhupinder Hooda

New Delhi, August 13

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday asserted that he is "neither tired, nor retired" but said the Congress high command will take a call on who would be the chief minister after getting a majority in the assembly elections.

In an interview here with PTI, Hooda said the contest in the polls scheduled to take place later this year is between the BJP and the Congress, and the Jannayak Janta Party as well as the INLD-BSP alliance will be relegated to just being "vote-cutters".

Hooda, 76, also dismissed talk of factionalism in the party's Haryana unit, asserting that "matbhed hote hain...manbhed nahi hain (there could be difference of opinion... but no dissension)."

"The Congress is fully prepared. It was a good result in Haryana in the Lok Sabha polls. We are ready, they can declare the elections whenever they want. People have made up their minds and a Congress government will be formed after the polls," the two-time chief minister and the current Leader of Opposition in the assembly said.

Asked if the Congress should declare a chief ministerial face this time, Hooda said the party has laid down a process which it follows in such matters.

"Elections happen, MLAs are elected, observers are sent and they take their view, and then the high command decides who will be CM," Hooda told PTI.

Asked if his son Deepender Singh Hooda was also in the running to be the next CM, the former chief minister said the high command decides such matters, keeping in mind the views of the MLAs. "As far I am concerned, neither I am tired nor retired," Bhupinder Hooda said.

Pressed if the party will decide the CM face after the polls, he answered in the affirmative and added that "when one gets a majority, only then a CM is appointed".

Hooda also rejected talk of factionalism in the party, saying there are no division within the Congress and it was the BJP that is a divided house.