Hooda in charge, but Haryana waits for government

Thu, Nov 5 01:50 AM

While the impasse on government formation in Maharashtra has drawn attention, the stalemate in Haryana has been all but ignored. More than a week after Bhupinder Singh Hooda was sworn in as chief minister, ministry formation in the state has been on hold.

When the high command turns its attention to Haryana, it is likely to confront competing claims for berths in the Assembly and attempts by some leaders to block the possibility of their rivals making it. All guns are trained, for instance, at former forest minister Kiran Choudhry, and also at state Congress chief Phool Chand Mullana to dethrone him for the party's underwhelming performance in the just concludedAssembly polls.

All contenders for ministerial berths have been camping in Delhi, almost taking over the precincts of Haryana Bhawan which has showed full occupancy ever since Hooda took over. Hooda himself has come to Chandigarh only to attend to his essential engagements and has remained mostly in Delhi.

With Hooda meeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi earlier this week, the drama has acquired a new frisson of excitement. On the same day, however, Sonia also gave a hearing to other Congress leaders, including former BCCI president Ranbir Mahindra who lost in the Lok Sabha elections. Mahindra is now blaming his sister-in-law Kiran Choudhry for his defeat.

Significantly, in the run-up to the announcement of Hooda as chief minister as well, the Congress president had given a hearing to all camps.

Whether or not Kiran Choudhry finds space in the Cabinet will be telling. Choudhry is looking for a promotion to cabinet rank as she was a minister of state in the previous council of ministers. The Hooda camp is not known to be in favour of Kiran's inclusion in the Cabinet and if the party has to cut down on the number of Jats in the cabinet then most are likely to single her out for sacrifice. Yet, Choudhry has demonstrated in the past that she can even compel Hooda to backtrack, as he had to on his decision to deprive her of one of her portfolios in the previous Cabinet.

The party will also have to factor in caste and local considerations while forming the ministry. Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonepat, for instance, have returned one-third of the 40 MLAs who won the elections. But if more members of the ministry are taken from this area, Hooda will have to defend himself against allegations of favouring his areas of influence. Rohtak and Jhajjar constitute the Rohtak parliamentary constituency represented by Hooda and his son, Deepender.

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