Chandigarh, July 20 (Inditop.com) Into its fifth year in power in Haryana, the Congress is still calling the shots in state politics and might even call for early assembly polls. The best indicator of its strength comes from the opposition Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) plunging political fortunes.
Top leaders of the INLD, one of whom was with the party for over 30 years, have deserted it and most of them are joining the Congress.
The INLD has lost Sampat Singh, a former finance minister and one of the more suave faces of the party which is otherwise dominated by former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and his sons Ajay Singh and Abhay Singh.
The exodus from the INLD comes just months before Haryana’s assembly polls. While elections in the state are scheduled for February next year – just seven months away – the Congress wants these to be advanced to October-November this year to cash in on the party’s recent electoral exploits.
The INLD, which was heavily banking on staging a comeback in Haryana politics, got a drubbing recently when the ruling Congress won nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the general elections this year.
In the May general elections, the INLD could manage a lead only in seven assembly segments – out of a total of 90 seats – while alliance partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led in seven others. The Congress led in 59 assembly segments.
The INLD, which ruled Haryana between 1999 and 2005, was trounced in the February 2005 assembly polls. It got only nine seats in the assembly. Led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the Congress government assumed power in Haryana in March 2005 after a landslide victory, making a comeback in the state after nine years.
Close on the heels of Sampat Singh, Sushil Kumar Indora, the INLD’s deputy leader in the Haryana assembly and Chautala’s confidant, not only quit the INLD but also resigned from the state assembly where he represented Ellenabad, and joined the Congress.
Indora was a known critic of the Congress government inside the assembly and used to be at the forefront in attacking the Hooda government.
Along with Indora, M.L. Ranga, former minister in the Chautala government, Bahadur Singh, former MP, and Krishan Chand Karsa, the head of the INLD’s intellectual cell, too joined the Congress.
Sampat Singh, who has still not joined the Congress, had lost the Lok Sabha election from Hisar to Bhajan Lal, the former chief minister and Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) leader, by a narrow margin of less than 7,000 votes in May this year. He had contested on the INLD ticket.
The reasons for top INLD leaders abandoning the sinking INLD ship are not hard to find. Though the leaders are complaining that they were no longer being heard in the party, the truth is it was always run with a firm grip by the Chautala family.
Chautala himself is the son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal, the man who founded the INLD.
The ruling party is all set to keep everyone away from power for the next five years too with the INLD being decimated in the state, the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) having no standing to make it alone and the newly floated HJC of former chief minister Bhajan Lal not being able to dent the Congress.
rounak