chandigarh

Updated: Nov 01, 2019 23:06 IST

Even though the Haryana Congress legislature party at its meeting here on Friday resolved that party chief Sonia Gandhi will choose the leader in the House, demand from MLAs belonging to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda camp to take into consideration the choice of legislators as well was loud and clear.

Of the total 31 Congress MLAs, about 24 belong to the Hooda camp.

Besides state leaders, the party’s state in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad and central observer Madhusudan Mistry also attended the meeting.

The meeting began with the party state president Kumari Selja moving a resolution authorising Sonia to choose the CLP leader, which was seconded by former CLP leaders Kiran Choudhry and Hooda.

It was at this point of the meeting that several MLAs, including Geeta Bhukkal and B B Batra of Hooda camp, asked the central observer Mistry to give credence to the choice of MLAs as well. Mistry subsequently met all the Congress legislators separately to know their choice.

Later after the meeting, responding to questions on why there was no consensus on a name at the CLP meeting, Kumari Selja said it was the party tradition to always authorise the central leadership to take the call.

Of the 31 Congress MLAs this time, 17 were there in the previous assembly as well when Kiran Choudhry was the CLP leader. It was little before the October assembly elections that the party high command replaced the state president Ashok Tanwar with Kumari Selja and Choudhry with Hooda. The differences between Hooda, Choudhry and Tanwar camps are a common secret.

The first session of the 14th Vidhan Sabha is scheduled to start on November 4. In the House of 90 members, the BJP won 40 seats, its junior partner in the government Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10, INLD and Haryana Lokhit Party one each and there are seven independent MLAs.

Strap: Haryana Congress legislators authorise party chief Sonia Gandhi to choose their leader in Vidhan Sabha; Hooda camp MLAs demand that choice of party legislators should also be taken into consideration