Boss In Da ’Hood
Crop rotation may be good for the farm, but not necessarily for politics. At least that’s what the Congress has decided in Haryana, whose soil will host only one standing crop. A robust breed called Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Right from picking candidates, realigning caste equations and giving shape to the campaign, the former CM has elbowed out all his rivals. His eyes are clearly set on the assembly polls later this year— in an ironic twist, he’s actually using the general election as a semi-final to test his armoury. Eight out of 10 candidates in the state—including the one contesting on AAP’s ticket—swear by the burly Jat leader from Rohtak. Even Gandhi family loyalist Kumari Shelja, a habitual Hoodabaiter under normal circumstances, appears to have compromised to his might and agreed to shift from bustling Ambala to the western outback of Sirsa. There she will take on another Hooda foe, Ashok Tan- war, who has switched to the BJP. In fact, it’s as if a whole ’hood of Hooda haters who once made inner party democracy a riveting aair within the Congress—Kuldeep Bishnoi, Vinod Sharma, Naveen Jindal—are now on the other side. The reverse trac is a bit
up too. Hooda’s cousin and Hisar MP Brijendra Singh had returned to the Congress in March—followed in April by his father, Chaudhary Birender Singh, who had rebelled against Hooda’s dominance in 2014 and joined the BJP, going on to become Union minister. But the father-son duo are cut up again because Brijendra didn’t get the ticket for Hisar. Kiran Chaudhary and Randeep Surjewala—the other two Hooda-baiters (everyone who’s not a Hooda seems to be a baiter)—are in a sour mood too. But then, this is Haryana, with just 10 seats—too small a league to have space for Second Division players.