Hooda’s leadership challenges, Congress’ internal conflicts, and his potential exit loom over Haryana politics.
NEW DELHI: Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is likely to make a major political decision in the coming days, sources aware of the development have said. This could involve forming his own regional party after resigning from the Congress.
Hooda has been at odds with Congress leadership in Delhi, especially Rahul Gandhi, after the party failed to win the October 2024 Haryana elections despite Gandhi giving Hooda a free hand. According to party insiders, this allowed Hooda to decide on more than two-thirds of the 89 Congress candidates that contested the election. Despite visible signs of anti-incumbency against the BJP’s ten-year rule, Congress was limited to just 37 seats. Party leaders claimed that the 11% rise in Congress’s vote share indicated widespread dissatisfaction with the BJP. However, this increase in vote share did not translate into a proportionate increase in seats, which was attributed to mishandling during ticket distribution and Hooda’s alleged attempts to weaken other prominent leaders in the state, including those close to Kumari Selja.
Hooda’s detractors have alleged that many of the party’s strong candidates lost because of independent candidates put up in at least 15 seats, allegedly by Hooda’s camp. They claim this was done to protect Hooda from central agencies and to allow the BJP to regain power. However, Hooda’s supporters have dismissed these accusations as “mischief” and “unsubstantiated rumours,” attributing them to other party leaders upset with Hooda’s decades-long control over the Haryana Congress.
Email sent to Hooda seeking his response did not generate a reply by the time the story went to press. Sources say that Hooda has been pushing for the post of Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Assembly for himself, a position he held from 2014-2019. His supporters claim that at least 30 of the 37 Congress MLAs want Hooda to be appointed as the LoP. To avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law, Hooda would need the support of two-thirds of the total MLAs, which adds up to 25 MLAs. However, since the Assembly speaker is from the BJP, it is speculated that if Hooda and his supporting MLAs form a new party, they will have enough time to manage the situation.
However, Gandhi, who faced a similar setback in Madhya Pradesh during the 2023 elections when Congress failed to form a government despite Kamal Nath being given full autonomy and all signs pointing to a BJP loss, has resisted the pressure from Hooda. This is evident from the fact that, despite over four months having passed since the election results, no Leader of Opposition has been appointed in Haryana.
Congress sources, speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Gandhi has insisted that the “my way or the highway” approach of Congress old guards will not work anymore, signalling that it is now a “who-will-blink-first” situation in Haryana.
The figure of 30 MLAs claimed by Hooda’s supporters—similar to the time when Jyotiraditya Scindia crossed over to the BJP with 22 MLAs in March 2020—could be “overestimated,” with neutral Haryana-based observers estimating that those who might actually join Hooda to form a new party would number closer to 15 MLAs.
The Jat face of Haryana Congress, Hooda, was among the leaders known as G-23, who signed a letter in August 2020 calling for an overhaul of Congress, which was seen as a challenge to Gandhi’s leadership. Despite this, Hooda’s influence in Haryana Congress remained strong, as seen in his role during ticket distribution.
Both Hooda and his trusted lieutenant, state Congress chief Udai Bhan, were excluded from the list of star campaigners for the recently concluded Delhi Assembly elections. This, seen as yet another message from the central leadership to Hooda and his loyalists, is also being blamed for Congress’s poor performance in four districts—Faridabad, Gurgaon, Sonipat, and Jhajjar—which border Delhi. In these districts, the party won only five out of the 20 seats: Prithla in Faridabad, Baroda in Sonipat, and Beri and Badli in Jhajjar. Bhan himself lost from the SC-reserved Hodal seat in Palwal district. The list did, however, include Hooda’s bete noire, Kumari Selja, and Randeep Singh Surjewala, as well as Hooda’s son, Deepender Hooda, a Lok Sabha MP from Rohtak.
Last month, former Haryana Congress in-charge Deepak Babaria, who was recently replaced by B.K. Hariprasad, formed four committees to oversee the upcoming local body elections in the state. All of them were seen as members of the anti-Hooda camp.
Just days after the Congress lost the Haryana elections, at least 31 Congress MLAs were called to Hooda’s Delhi residence in what was seen as a show of strength ahead of the Congress Legislature Party meeting in Haryana. All the MLAs declared that they would want Hooda to be their leader. However, this show of strength did not seem to have any impact on Gandhi and his team, leading to the current situation where Hooda is moving toward forming his own party.
A senior Chandigarh-based party functionary told The Sunday Guardian that it would be more prudent for the Congress leadership to allow Hooda to become the LoP since he is already 77 years old and will soon retire from active politics.
“Hooda is fighting an existential battle as he is being snubbed by the leadership and is fearful of going to prison. Many Congress workers believe that it was because of Hooda that Congress failed to win the election, so there is justifiable anger against him. However, it is equally true that he is the most popular leader in the state. Rather than forcing his exit from the party, it would be better to make him the LoP and allow for his quiet retirement,” the leader said.