Who Will Be The Chief Minister?

This time round, the very same farmers who helped him to victory in February2000 turned on him with such vengeance that Chautala’s INLD has been routed inthe state winning just nine out of the 90 seats, and the Congress, riding highon the ‘misdeeds’ of Chautala comes back with a landslide two-thirdmajority.

In the end, it was not the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal, or the hike in prices ofessential commodities or even the hike in power tariff. Cutting across castelines, Haryanavis have voted against what has commonly been described as the ABCof the Chautala regime: Abhay, Billu and Chautala (ABC) i.e. his two sons andhimself had become a byword for excesses and lawlessness rampant in the state.

The party’s humiliating defeat also shows that Chautala’s Jat vote bankstands eroded. The party has retained just one out of the 11 seats in the Jatheartland of Rohtak, Jind and Hissar. Things could have been worse for the INLDif it were not for the reserved seats. More than half the seats won by the INLDare in the reserved category, where it has benefited only because of a divisionin the Harijan votes.

With 67 seats in its kitty, the Congress has registered its best ever victoryin Haryana. And around five of the 12 independent candidates too are itsformer members as they are the rebel candidates who stood on their own when theywere denied official party tickets. So strong has been the sentiment in Haryanaagainst the Chautala clan that even the bitter infighting within the stateCongres unit did not dent the party’s performance.

It’s no secret that even during the election campaign senior Congressleaders who fancied themselves as future chief ministers were busy underminingeach other’s loyalists who were contesting the election. Such activities havebeen widely attributed to leaders like Bhajan Lal and Bhupinder Hooda. TheCongress also did not have anything worthwhile to offer to the people during thecampaign and confined its electioneering to Chautala bashing. So it’s not somuch a pro-Congress wave in Haryana which has swept the party to power but moreof an anti-Chautala sentiment which has favoured the Congress.

Despite Chautala’s best efforts to dole out virtually a sop a day after hisparty’s resounding defeat in last year’s Lok Sabha election (when the INLDlost all LS seats and led in only nine assembly segments), the electorate hasnot responded. The chief minister has lost in Narwana to the young RandeepSurjewalla although he has managed to retain his place in the legislature bywinning from Rori. His finance minister Sampat Singh, who was the benign face ofthe party too has lost from Bhattu Kalan along with most other ministers of the Chautala government.

In the Congress camp, the celebrations bring with them the first onset oftrouble within the party. With about half a dozen aspirants for the chiefminister’s post, it’s a tricky business for the party to work out anacceptable solution. Buoyed with a huge margin of over 70,000 votes, the firstoff the blocks is Bhajan Lal who has already staked his claim to the topjob on the strength of his having held it thrice before. His supporters havealso begun collecting signatures of newly elected legislators in the run up tothe first meeting of the Congress legislature party where the new leader will beelected.

With the results coming in, supporters of other contenders for the post suchas Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Birender Singh, Randeep Singh Surjewalla and KumariSelja have become more strident in their claims, even as the protagoniststhemselves temper their ambitions with token references to the MLAs and thecentral leadership (read: Sonia Gandhi)..

Much would depend on whether the Congress party wants to project a Jat or anon Jat as the chief minister. Jats, with 21% of the population are not only thelargest community in Haryana but also encompass within their fold the powerfulfarmer’s lobby . For long the Congress has been seen to be anti-Jat, becauseits chief minister in previous tenures was Bhajan Lal , a non-Jat. Powerfulgroups within the Congress who are opposing his candidature cite this as a majordisqualification. A senior Congressman reasoned, that if the party optsfor a Jat as the chief minister this time, it will in one stroke wipe away yearsof propaganda by the INLD that the Congress does not have the interests of theJats in mind.

The other factor weighing against Bhajan Lal is a growing sentiment in theparty that the time has come to bring in a fresh and younger person to lead theparty in the state. When Randeep Surjewalla was appointed working president ofthe HPCC just before the election, many saw it as signal from the Congress’stop leadership that he is tipped to be the next chief minister. Even if he doesnot make it to the top job, Surjewalla is definitely expected to be an importantfixture in the new government. Kumari Selja could prove to be another darkhorse.

Either way, it’s time for a show of strength before party president SoniaGandhi and as far as Haryana Congressmen are concerned all leads to 10 Janpathnow, where newly elected top leaders are heading with lists of legislatorssupporting their claim to chief ministership.

A few months after the Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) resounding defeatin the Lok Sabha elections last year, rumours began to do the rounds that chiefminister Om Prakash Chautala had bought a huge bungalow in a posh locality ofChandigarh, to serve as a haven in the post assembly election days for which thewriting on the wall was already clear. Though the INLD has been reduced to asingle digit tally in the assembly now, it now transpires that Chautalajust might be able to get a government bungalow for himself as the leader of theopposition in the Haryana Assembly.