Veteran Bhupinder Singh Hooda likes to claim that the upcoming Haryana state assembly elections will be his last. Such claims are often heard loudly before elections, but are conveniently forgotten once the results are out. The 76-year-old politician is hoping to kill two birds with one stone: if the Bharatiya Janata Party wins under his leadership, he can consolidate his family’s power base and silence the younger opposition within the party.
Hooda, who entered politics at a young age, has seen it all in state politics. At the age of 25, he was made chairman of the Indian National Congress’ Kiri Block Committee. In 1991, at the age of 44, he was elected to the Indian Lok Sabha. Five years later, he became president of the Haryana Legislative Assembly. Four years later, he became Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly.
Hooda’s career reached a new pinnacle when he became the Chief Minister of Haryana in 2005. Since then, he has led the state Congress despite powerful opponents within the party hatching all schemes to oust him.
With new elections looming, Hooda remains in power and the Congress leadership in Delhi has effectively handed over command of Haryana to him.
This was evident in India’s recent Lok Sabha elections, where Hooda’s supporters swept eight of the nine seats, while his opponent Kumari Selja managed to win just one.
When Hooda said during an internal meeting on the Haryana Assembly elections that this would be his last election, top leader Rahul Gandhi reportedly smiled and reminded the veteran leader that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had also said the same earlier but was only coming back to fight.
Last or not, this is a crucial election for Hooda. If this grand old party comes to power, he will have the opportunity to appoint his son, Deepender Hooda, the current Lok Sabha MP from Rohtak, as the party and government’s flag-bearer in Haryana.
Though Hooda belonged to a political family, he had to struggle to rise to the top party post in Haryana state politics, dominated by Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal of the Indian National Congress and Devi Lal of the Janata Dal.
His father Ranbir Singh Hooda was a freedom fighter, a member of the Constituent Assembly that framed the Constitution, a Member of Parliament, a State Assembly member and a Minister, but it was an uphill task for him to carve out any sort of status as the stalwarts commanded respect from the dominant Jat community.
Hooda proved early on that he was no political weakling when he defeated Devi Lal in the Lok Sabha elections of 1991, 1996 and 1998. This made him a leader of considerable influence among the Jats. However, the dominance of Bhajan Lal did not make it easy for him and other leaders like O.P. Jindal, Surender Choudhury and Virender Choudhury.
Power Play
After the 2005 assembly elections, they decided to band together and support Hooda for chief minister, seizing the opportunity to show his side to Bhajan Lal. They assumed Hooda would be amenable, but they were wrong.
After the 2009 assembly elections, Hooda set a record by becoming the first chief minister of Haryana to be sworn in as speaker for a second time. By then, he had consolidated his position within the party, but his former supporters were trying to build an opposition within it.
They thought they had their chance in 2014 and again in 2019 when the BJP failed to return to power in the state and performed disastrously in the Lok Sabha elections. But by then Mr Hooda had taken control of the party organisation, leaving leaders like Mr Selja and Randeep Surjewala little room for manoeuvre.
In the meantime, he sent his son Deepender Hooda into politics and made him the MP from Rohtak. Deepender won in 2009 and 2014 but lost in 2019. Hooda Jr, however, was sent to Rajya Sabha and returned to Lok Sabha in 2024.
The party’s electoral defeat made Hooda part of a group of 23 leaders who rebelled against the Gandhi family after the debacle of 2019. The G-23 soon fell apart, with leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad leaving the party and others like Anand Sharma being sidelined.
Nevertheless, Hooda survived by taking control of both the Haryana organisation and the Congress party, which he continued to helm while installing his ally Uday Bhan as state president.
Earlier, when the central leadership tried to rein him in by installing Gandhi ally Ashok Tanwar as governor of Selja, Hooda played the “non-cooperation” card to make it difficult for them to function. He also ensured that the influence of the Bansi Lal family (Surender Choudhury and Kiran Choudhury) and Virender Choudhury was minimised.
Parallel games
As Haryana enters a new election season, the battle is expected to play out similarly to the pre-Loss polls, with Hooda’s camp leading the charge while Selja and Surjewala launch parallel campaigns.
Deepender is taking part in the state-wide ‘Haryana Mange Hisab’ march launched by the Congress. Both Selja and Surjewala are not taking part in the ‘official’ march, with Selja starting his own ‘Congress Sandesh March’ from Ambala on Saturday.
Whether Deepender can step out from his father’s shadow remains to be answered. Hooda believes he has set the stage, but predicting the political future is a dangerous game, as Hooda and others know it well.
Published July 28, 2024 02:54 IST
