E-Paper
An offer Bhajan Lal couldn't resist
Lal's scowl over Hooda's appointment as CM turned into smile when he was offered ministerial berths for both sons.
Veteran Congressman Bhajan Lal fretted and fumed when he was denied the chief ministership of Haryana - but the scowl turned into a smile when he was offered a package he just couldn't refuse.
The wily politician was told one of his two sons would be inducted in the Cabinet of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the other would be made a minister at the Centre.
That was enough for the 74-year-old Bhajan Lal, who had travelled from being exuberant winner to optimistic aspirant to sulking leader who gave the Government just three months - all this in a space of eight days - to let bygones be bygones.
Appearing before television cameras, a grinning Bhajan Lal declared he would chart out a new course for the Congress in Haryana. Congress leaders say Bhajan Lal could not refuse the package Congress president Sonia Gandhi offered - coveted posts for his sons, Kuldip Bishnoi and Chander Mohan.
Others say Bhajan Lal realised he would not be able to wage another war against the Congress leadership.
Still, many say his "love and respect" for the party prompted him to back down.
"Bhajan Lal is the senior most leader in the Haryana Congress and if he does not sacrifice for the party, who else will," asked son Bishnoi rhetorically.
Party sources said Gandhi told Bhajan Lal that Bishnoi and Chander Mohan would get ministerial berths at the Centre and state respectively.
Bhajan Lal is said to have initially insisted that Chander Mohan be made Haryana's deputy chief - a proposal Hooda had refused outrightly. In the end, however, he realised it was best to give in.
"Also, he is too old to fight another war against leadership at this juncture," said a congress MP from Haryana.
Not everyone agrees with this. "He is old, but an old war horse. You cannot write him off. He may have settled for the time being but could rise again any time," said a Congress leader.
That could well be true about a man, who is a past master at political skulduggery.
"Maybe, he is looking for the right time. This time, he was helpless as most of the MLAs whom he trusted, ditched him," said a leader, doing the rounds of the Congress headquarters in the hope of being accommodated in Hooda's Cabinet.
Bhajan Lal was a frontrunner to become Haryana chief minister after the Congress' sweeping victory last month but was sidelined when the party decided to give Hooda the job.
