Being the virtual commander of the state Congress unit, seasoned politician Bhupinder Singh Hooda will be able to anoint his son if the party captures power in the Jat heartland
Veteran Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda likes to claim that the upcoming Haryana Assembly polls will be his last. While many such loud claims are often heard ahead of elections — to be conveniently forgotten once the results are out — the 76-year-old politician is looking to kill two birds with one stone. An electoral victory for Congress under his command will enable him to cement his family’s hold on power and also silence his young detractors in the party.
Having taken the political plunge at a young age, Hooda has seen it all in state politics. At the age of 25, he became the president of the Congress party’s Kiloi Block committee. In 1991, at 44, Hooda entered the Lok Sabha. Five years later, he became the president of Haryana Congress unit. Another four years down the line, he was the leader of the opposition in the state assembly.
Hooda’s career touched a new peak in 2005 when he became the Haryana chief minister. Since then he has been steering the state Congress despite strong opponents within the party playing all tricks to unseat him.
Now at the doorstep of another election, Hooda continues to rule the roost and the Congress top brass in Delhi has virtually given up the command to him in Haryana.
This was evident during the recent Lok Sabha elections when Hooda cornered eight of the nine seats for his loyalists leaving just one for detractor Kumari Selja.
At an internal meeting on Haryana Assembly polls, when Hooda said that this would be his last election, top leader Rahul Gandhi is said to have smiled and reminded the veteran leader that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too had said the same earlier but only to return for a fight.
Last or not, this is a crucial election for Hooda. If the grand old party captures power, he will get the opportunity to anoint his son, Deepender Hooda, who is currently the Lok Sabha member from Rohtak, as the flagbearer of the party and its government in Haryana.
Though he belonged to a political family, Hooda had to struggle to reach the top position in the party as Haryana politics was dominated by Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal of the Congress and Devi Lal of the Janata Dal.
It was an uphill task for him to carve out some space, especially when the stalwarts commanded respect from the dominant Jat community, though his father, Ranbir Singh Hooda, was a freedom fighter, a member of the Constituent Assembly that framed the Constitution, an MP, MLA and a minister.
Hooda proved at the earliest that he was not a political pushover when he defeated Devi Lal in the Lok Sabha elections in 1991, 1996 and 1998. This made him a leader with considerable clout among Jats. Yet, it was not easy for him or other leaders like O P Jindal, Surender Choudhary and Birender Choudhary as Bhajan Lal towered over them.
Power play
They got an opportunity to show Bhajan Lal his place after the 2005 assembly polls when they got together and decided to support Hooda for the CM post. The calculation of his supporters was that Hooda would be pliant; it was a miscalculation.