The former Chief Minister is being backed by most Congress leaders in the state.

New Delhi: While most Congress leaders in Haryana have joined the party faction that is being managed by former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son Deepender Hooda, only a few loyalists in Haryana, including Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kumari Selja and Ashok Tanwar, are left behind as flag bearers of the central Congress high command, that is the Gandhi family.

According to sources, Bhupinder Singh Hooda has constituted a 25-member committee comprising 13 MLAs to decide his future course of action. The committee’s decision will be announced by the second week of September.

A source close to the Hooda camp told The Sunday Guardian: “Bhupinder Singh Hooda is all set to float his own party as a 25-member led committee is working to draft a roadmap for launching a party in the state in case the central leadership sidelines the former Chief Minister. Bhupinder Hooda has already warned the Congress high command to fall in line with him in Haryana, otherwise he will part ways.”

“The committee is also charting out the campaign strategy for Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the stress is on to regain the lost support in Jatland. The committee is working to make a 15-point suggestion to woo the OBC voters in the state. The committee will also bring out the report about the failures of the incumbent Manohar Lal Khattar-led Bharatiya Janta Party government,” the same source said.

To showcase his strength, Bhupinder Singh Hooda held a rally on 18 August where he openly expressed his dismay and said: “The Congress has lost its way (bhatak gayee).” Hooda added that the party was “no longer the old Congress”. While speaking at the rally, he also backed the Centre’s decision of revoking Article 370.

However, though the rally was being touted as the beginning of the Assembly poll campaign, political observers said that it was a show of strength as Bhupinder Singh Hooda wants total control over the party in the state ahead of the Assembly polls.

Although the central leadership is almost silent on the ongoing infighting, Congress state unit president Ashok Tanwar has been coming out in public to criticise Bhupinder Hooda’s stand. Hooda has been holding Tanwar’s alleged inefficiency as the reason for the repeated loss of the party in the state. However, Tanwar has blamed the nationwide decline of Congress for the repeated defeats in the state.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda is considered to be the strongest Congress leader in Haryana as he has the support of 13 legislators out of 17 incumbent legislators of the party in Haryana. With a split in the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Bhupinder Singh Hooda is the most prominent Opposition face in Haryana who still has a large mass base in the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Party swept Haryana in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, winning all the 10 seats there. BJP’s vote share significantly increased compared to 2014. Hooda himself and his son Deepender Singh Hooda, were defeated from Sonepat and Rohtak, respectively.

Despite losing his own seat from Sonipat in the recently held Lok Sabha polls, compared to the other Congress leaders like Tanwar and Kumari Selja who lost their seats by over three lakh votes and Randeep Singh Surjewala who stood third in a bypoll in Jind, Bhupinder Hooda appears to be more appealing for most of the Congress MLAs in Haryana.

Starting from 2005, Bhupinder Hooda has been the Chief Minister of Haryana for two consecutive terms. He is not only a prominent Jat leader, but also the face of the Congress in Haryana.