Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh
The Bhupinder Singh Hooda
Government is in crisis in Haryana and could fall due to its inner
contradictions before completing its term in October. Due to shifting loyalties
of several MLAs and imminent threat the Government faces, Assembly polls in the
State could be advanced by at least two months.
While the Haryana Government is
in crisis, the party is in shambles. Even as the Hooda Government and the party
was trying to recoup after the shock resignation of Ambala MLA and practically
the No. 2 in the
Government, Venod Sharma, the party suffered another setback on Friday as
sitting MLA from Sohna, Dharambir Singh resigned from the party and joined BJP.
He had earlier quit as Chief
Parliamentary Secretary demanding a party nomination from the
Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat in place of sitting Congress MP Shruti Chaudhary.
Singh is a four-time MLA and his joining BJP is expected to boost the chances
of the party not only in the Lok Sabha polls but also Assembly elections later
this year.
The Hooda Government is now in a
minority and has an effective strength of only 43 Congress MLAs, including the
Speaker, in the 90-member Haryana Assembly. The only saving grace for the
Government is that it passed the Budget before the Model Code of Conduct came
into force and as per norms, the next Assembly session can be postponed till
six months, first week of September.
In 2009 Assembly polls Congress
won 40 seats and was reduced to a minority. The party poached five MLAs of
Haryana Janhit Congress and took them in their party fold, increasing the
figure to 45. With the support of seven Independent MLAs, Hooda formed the
Government for the second time in a row.
Now after the resignation of
Sharma and Dharambir Singh, the figure of Congress MLAs has come down to 43
reducing the party to a minority. Two of the supporting MLAs — Zile Ram and OP
Jain are in jail. Another MLA Gopal Kanda, accused in the Geetika Sharma
suicide case, has just come out of jail on bail and has announced the formation
of a regional party to contest Lok Sabha elections against the Congress.
With the Lok Sabha elections
scheduled on April 10 and Assembly polls in October this year, most of the
other supporting Independent MLAs are looking for greener pastures and consider
Congress as a sinking ship.
Venod Sharma, who helped Hooda
get the support of Independent MLAs in 2009, is apparently in touch with some
of them to form a block so that he is able to get a good bargain from the NDA.
Sharma is supporting Narendra Modi as Prime Minister even though his entry in
either BJP or Kuldeep Bishnoi led Haryana Janhit Congress has been blocked
temporarily.
“The Hooda Government for all
purposes has been reduced to a minority at this point as no one knows the stand
of the Independent MLAs when the chips are down. The Government may not fall
technically as a no-confidence motion would not be brought by the INLD as
Assembly elections are close,” said a Congress leader. He said in any case,
three INLD MLAs are also in jail — OP Chautala, Ajay Chautala and Sher Singh
Badshami, reducing the effective strength of the Assembly.
In the run up to the elections,
Congress has failed to attract any single important leader from any other party
even though it faced a series of high profile desertions. The most prominent
Congress deserter was sitting Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit, who was also a Minister
in the UPA I Government.
Apart from Rao Inderjit, three
former ministers Krishna Gehlot, Saroj Sarwan and Ramesh Kaushik also joined
BJP. Sources in the BJP said that several other Congress leaders have
approached them and want to join BJP.
With multi cornered contest
emerging in Haryana for the first time in recent years, the desertions from the
Congress have strengthened perception that the ruling party was on a sticky
wicket in the state, facing double anti-incumbency at both the State and
Central levels. (March 15, 2014)
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