High command delays Hooda swearing-in

Aditi Phadnis & Saubhadro Chatterji / New Delhi November 07, 2009, 0:48 IST

The tents had been put up. The invitation cards were distributed. The state home secretary and the director general of police had carried out a security inspection and even finalised the place where food was to be served to the guests!

But the swearing-in ceremony for the new Congress government of Haryana scheduled for Friday never happened. It is likely to take place on Saturday.

On Thursday, Chief Minister-elect Bhupinder Singh Hooda got a strong message from Congress President Sonia Gandhi. He was asked to cancel the swearing-in ceremony and instead furnish a fresh list for his council of ministers. According to top Congress sources, the party high command was irked the way Hooda packed the ministerial team with his own people, ignoring rival groups.

Although Hooda became the first Congress chief minister in Haryana to retain power for two successive terms, the Congress got just 40 out of 90 seats in the Assembly polls. With reduced strength, Hooda had to depend on support of seven Independents to win the vote of confidence in the Assembly on October 28. And now, it is a clear signal from the high command that Hooda’s writ won’t run as it used to be earlier.

During the ticket distribution for the 2009 Assembly polls, Hooda managed to field many of his loyalists. But after the election results that saw a severe erosion in the Congress’ seats, Hooda finds himself under a tighter grip of the party high command. In the Assembly polls, the Congress won just 40 seats.

Congress sources said the high command wanted to see Savitri Jindal — mother of Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal — and Kiran Chowdhary becoming ministers in the new Congress government in Haryana. While Hooda offered Chowdhary, a three-time MLA considered close to 10 Janpath, the post of a mere minister of state, Savitri Jindal was not mentioned in the list of ministers.

According to a section of the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi — Congress leader and Sonia Gandhi’s daughter — was not very happy to find that Vinod Sharma was to have been accommodated as a minister in the Hooda cabinet. Sharma’s son is in jail serving a sentence for murder after having previously tried to intimidate witnesses. However, Sharma and Hooda are extremely close political associates.

Party sources also suggest Hooda is under tremendous pressure to accommodate Gopal Goyel — promoter of the MDLR Airlines and an independent MLA — in his cabinet. As the Congress government enjoys a wafer-thin majority in the Assembly, Hooda has to try to appease the Independents offering crucial support to them.