Cong stakes claim, to form govt in Haryana

The Congress, which ended up six seats short of simple majority in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, will meet Governor Jagannath Pahadia here today to stake claim to form the government.

"We are going to meet the Governor shortly with letters of support of independent candidates and stake our claim," PCC chief Phool Chand Mullana said here.

Asked how many independents out of seven elected to the Assembly were with them, he said: "All of them are with us".

Mullana said on Thursday it had been decided that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda would meet the Governor with the letter of support of the independents, but because of his engagements in Delhi, he (Mullana) will meet the Governor.

He also added the Congress legislature party meeting will be held here later in the day to elect its leader.

The Congress emerged as the single largest party with 40 MLAs followed by 31 of the INLD. Shiromani Akali Dal, INLD's ally, got one seat.

Of the remaining 18 seats, Haryana Janhit Congress-BL, a new entrant in assembly polls, got 6 seats, BJP 4, BSP one0 and independents 7.

Asked about the response of the Governor, Mullana quoted Pahadia as saying that, "We will examine your claim."

With Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda camping in New Delhi, Mullana called on the Governor here.

To a question, he said: "If need be, we will bring the independents here".

Mullana termed as "baseless" INLD's charge that Congress was indulging in horse trading in its efforts to form the government.

"Those who subscribe to the Congress' view are welcome to support the party," he said, adding the Congress would hold the meeting of its newly-elected 40 legislators this evening.

Asked if the party held any talks with Kuldeep Bishnoi led Haryana Janhit Congress-BL, Mullana said there have been no talks so far. "Neither have they approached us," he added.

He described as "hypothetical" a question whether the Congress would approach the HJC-BL.  On opposition INLD reportedly writing a letter to the Governor asking him not to summon the Congress for government formation as it had failed to get a majority, the HPCC Chief said: "Anybody can make any claim. But the issue is that they do not have the numbers."

Mullana said the precedent is that the single largest party is called first for government formation.