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HT interview: All social groups want Congress to win in Haryana, says Hooda
Bullish about his party’s prospects, Hooda was perceptibly cautious in an interview while commenting on the sticky leadership question.
Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is the Congress’s face in the upcoming assembly polls in Haryana, although the man himself is keen on playing down his pre-eminence , and showcasing the party as a cohesive, combative unit, navigated by its central leadership to wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after a 10-year interregnum.
Bullish about his party’s prospects, Hooda was perceptibly cautious in an interview while commenting on the sticky leadership question. He claimed the decision to field champion wrestler Vinesh Phogat from the Julana seat (held by the Indian National Lok Dal and its break away Jannayak Janata Party for 15 years) was to honour an exceptional daughter of Haryana who has been wronged by the system. Edited excerpts:
Will your party contest the upcoming elections alone in Haryana?
That’ll be our high command’s call. They’re in negotiations. But they (the Aam Aadmi Party) have already declared candidates.
Is there a possibility of a pact happening?
It depends on the Congress high command.
And the AAP’s high demand for seats. No?
That you’ll need to ask the interlocutors (from the AAP and the Congress).
You’ve made wrestler Vinesh Phogat your party’s candidate in these elections. To that, the BJP says she now is just a Congresswoman and not the country’s daughter wrongly denied an Olympic medal.
Vinesh has been unfairly treated. I had told the BJP to nominate her to the Rajya Sabha as a brave face of our country. They did not do that. She needed consolation, a sort of morale booster. We have made her our candidate in appreciation, as a token of gratitude for her services to the country and the sport despite the odds, the public humiliation she faced.
Altruism apart, the Congress stands to gain politically from the gesture.
There’s no political vested interest. She would’ve won gold (if not disqualified for being 100 grams overweight). She’s already 30 years old. In celebrating her, we’re celebrating a doughty daughter of India.
In the previous assembly polls, the Congress paid a heavy price by delaying your projection as its face in Haryana. Have internal party discords that were a hindrances then, been addressed this time?
The party is united…..
Are Kumari Shelja and Randeep Surjewala good? Are they with you.
We are a democratic party in which differing points of view exist. Matbhed ho sakte hain, man bhed nahin hain (Differences can be there, but not discord). We all accept what our high command decides.
But must not the party make you its CM face?
There’s a settled Congress policy that after the elections, central observers ask the newly elected MLAs about their leadership choice and report it back to the high command which decides on that basis. The name they announce will be acceptable to everyone.
In the aftermath of the 2016 Jat-led quota stir in the state, the BJP’s strategy has been to make it a non-Jat versus Jat contest on the ground. They did it in 2019. Will that work this time?
That arrow missed the mark even last time. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP led in 79 assembly segments. It won only 40 seats in the subsequent assembly elections. The Congress led in only 10 Vidhan Sabha segments but we got 31 seats. The aggregate difference between us and them on closely contested seats was a mere 4,000 [votes]. Had that not been so, we’d have been the single largest party.
What if the results this time are a repeat of 2019 ? What’s the source of your confidence?
There’s no question of that happening. The people’s resolve to defeat the BJP cuts across castes (chattish biradari mann bana chuki hain).
What has caused this wholesale change of popular mood that you claim?
When we left the government in 2014, Haryana figured very high in per capita investment and income, law and order, employment and environment for sports. It has slipped badly on these counts. Unemployment and inflation today are touching the sky. Crime has gone up many times over. There’s a wave, with people saying the BJP’s going and the Congress returning to power.
Will it be right to say the three issues that might drive the voters are: Kisan (Farm unrest), Jawan (Agniveer) and Pehalwan (wrestlers agitated by sexual exploitation in the Wrestling Federation of India then led by BJP leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh).
In Haryana, it’s always Jai Kisan, Jai Jawan, Jai Pehalwan.
You claim you’ve done more for them…
The Congress has done it. You compare the MSP (minimum support prices) enhancement during our time and the BJP despite low farm input cost under us. They had promised in 2022 to double the farmers’ income. That hasn’t happened but the input burden has compounded. Just study the diesel, fertilisers and pesticide prices and you’ll know.
The residual Indian National Lok Dal and its fragment the JJP have tied up with the Bahujan Samaj Party and Chandrashekhar Azad’s Party. Their Jat-Dalit social combine could damage the Congress’s prospects.
I’ve told you that all social groups are one in their resolve to ensure a Congress government in Haryana. I was in the Ahirwal region (Rewari-Mahendragarh) to get our candidates’ nominations filed. The wave in our favour was tangible.
What number of seats are you expecting in the 90-strong assembly?
We’ll get a big majority.
You must have got an internal survey done. What does it say?
I don’t want to speculate on numbers. We’ll get a wholesome majority.
Will you want INDIA partners to come and campaign in Haryana?
We’ll welcome anyone who is called by our national leadership. The Congress is a constant in my family’s political ethos since the days of my father and grandfather. Lala Lajpat Rai’s father Munshi Radha Krishan taught Persian to my grandfather Chaudhary Matu Ram. Likewise, Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s uncle Ajit Singh stayed with my grandfather for a month when he was underground.
vinodsharma@hindustantimes.com
