Bhupinder Singh Hooda plans own show in Haryana

NEW DELHI: Haryana Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda would start his election campaign with a rally on August 18. The Parivartan Maha Rally would be held in Hooda’s pocket borough Rohtak. Around a month ago, Hooda had told ET that the party should take a call on the change in state leadership. However, inaction at the top level has forced Hooda to chart his own course. Haryana is going for polls later this year and BJP has already started its campaign.
On Sunday evening, 13 of the 17 Congress MLAs gathered at Hooda’s residence in Delhi and a programme for the rally was discussed. Hooda will have another meeting of party workers and his supporters on August 4 in Rohtak where he would prepare for the rally. Hooda has been demanding a change in state leadership through removal of PCC president Ashok Tanwar for a long time.

Sources told ET that the Congress leadership had ensured him about the change in state leadership. However it hasn’t been done as yet. Earlier this month, when the PCC presidents for Maharashtra and Mumbai Congress were changed, the Hooda camp expected an announcement in Haryana very soon. “How long one can wait,” an MLA from Hooda camp said. “They have been promising Hooda ji the PCC president post but they don’t announce it.”

Hooda denies any plan to go out of Congress. “It’s a rally to challenge BJP and there is nothing new in it. I have been doing such programmes in the past too. We have passed a resolution about the programme and sent it to the party high command,” Hooda told ET.

However ET spoke to many of the 13 MLAs who are supporting Hooda and they are willing to move out of Congress if the leadership doesn’t pay attention. “I think we are heading for a separation,” said one of the MLAs. “We have to fight an election and we can’t sit idle at home.”

One of the major worries for Hooda is the way BJP is focusing on his home turf Rohtak. On International Yoga Day, June 21, BJP president Amit Shah had attended the function at Rohtak. BJP working president J P Nadda was on a two-day tour last month in Haryana and on both the days he camped in Rohtak to address several party meetings.