Hooda confidant quits as Haryana legislator

Considered the closest confidant of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for almost a decade, former union minister Venod Sharma Friday resigned from the assembly.

"MLA Venod Sharma, who was elected a member to the Haryana assembly from Ambala City constituency, has resigned his seat vide his letter dated May 2, 2014, which has been accepted by Speaker, Haryana Vidhan Sabha, May 2, 2014," a notification of the Haryana assembly said.

The Ambala City seat has been declared vacant, an assembly spokesman said.

Elections to the state assembly in Haryana are scheduled to be held in October this year.

Sharma had maintained distance from Hooda and finally quit the ruling Congress in March this year. Sharma and Hooda shared close relations for nearly a decade after Hooda became the chief minister in his first term in March 2005.

Sharma was initially inducted a minister in the Hooda cabinet but was forced to quit following controversy over his son Manu Sharma's involvement in model Jessica Lal's murder case.

After quitting the Congress, Sharma tried to join the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) but the move was scuttled following BJP leader Sushma Swaraj raising objection. The HJC, led by former chief minister Bhajan Lal's son Kuldeep Bishnoi, has an alliance with the BJP in Haryana.

Sharma is likely to float a new political outfit in view of the assembly polls.

Former Haryana minister Gopal Kanda, who was in prison following his arrest in the abetment to suicide case of a flight attendant in August 2012, earlier this week announced withdrawal of support to the Hooda government.

Kanda, elected as an Independent legislator in the 2009 Haryana assembly polls, had extended support to the Congress party to help it form a government in the state.