Congress may not project chief minister's face for Haryana assembly polls

The Congress may not project a chief ministerial face for the Haryana Assembly elections, the party's state in-charge indicated on Sunday. Haryana will go to the polls later this year. Deepak Babaria, the Congress general secretary in charge of Haryana, exuded confidence that his party would win the polls with a big mandate and form its government in the state. 

Replying to a question, Babaria hinted that the Congress may not project anyone as its chief ministerial face ahead of the election. He said this after he was told that during a meeting of the BJP extended state executive at Panchkula on Saturday, Home Minister Amit Shah said the saffron party will contest the elections alone under the leadership of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. 

Asked if the Congress will declare its chief ministerial face, Babaria pointed to the party's tradition of not doing any such thing. "The Congress party's 70-year-old tradition is that whoever is elected by the legislature party...and 99.99 precedence is that it authorises the Congress president...," he said. 

Babaria asserted that finally, the decision will be taken in accordance with the elected legislators' wish. At the same time, Babaria also said, "It (chief ministerial face) is a major political decision. A confidentiality issue is also there, we do not want to go into its public debate." 

The Congress leader further said that there were five contenders for the chief minister's post in a state election last year but no one was projected as the chief ministerial face and the Congress still came to power in the state with an overwhelming majority. While he did not name the state, Telangana and Karnataka were the two states where the Congress bagged power in 2023. "In Haryana too, we will come to power with a landslide victory," the Congress leader said. 

Reports suggest that there the Haryana Congress is currently divided into two groups, one led by former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the other by Kumari Selja. 

When asked about Kumari Selja pointing fingers at him for not giving proper feedback to the party's high command on most of the tickets allotted to candidates in the Lok Sabha polls, Babaria said in a democracy, everybody is subject to questioning.

"Whatever decision I make, everyone can do its assessment and give their opinion. Selja is a big leader of our party. She has all the right to express herself and if she has found any shortcoming in me, she can raise it before the high command," he said. 

The Congress won five of the nine Lok Sabha seats it contested in Haryana. However, some party leaders felt that the grand old party could have won more if senior leaders had given rickets to the right candidates. 

Earlier this month, former Haryana Congress minister Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti Choudhry joined the BJP. Kiran Choudhry was upset with the state leadership as her daughter was denied a Lok Sabha ticket. Kiran, the daughter-in-law of late former Haryana Chief Minister and Congress stalwart Bansi Lal, took a dig at Bhupinder Singh Hooda, alleging that the party's state unit was being run as a "personal fiefdom". 

(With inputs from PTI)