india

Updated: Sep 04, 2019 01:27 IST

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s loyalists on Tuesday authorised him to take a call on whether to form a new party or stay in the Congress.

Hooda met the members of a 35-member committee of loyalists he had recently formed to chalk out the future course of action vis-à-vis Haryana politics on Tuesday. He had announced the setting up of the committee at a rally in Rohtak on August 18.

Assembly elections are due in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand in October-November this year. Hooda is up in arms against Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar and has sought his replacement saying he has failed in reviving the party.

Hooda has also taken a contrary stand to that of the Congress on the abrogation of Constitution’s Article 370 by supporting the government’s move. Tuesday’s meeting came three days after Hooda met Congress’s interim chief, Sonia Gandhi, and general secretary in-charge of Haryana, Ghulam Nabi Azad, to discuss the party issues.

After four hours of deliberations, the committee authorised him to decide the future move.

“We have asked him to take a decision,” said former Haryana minister Sampat Singh