New Delhi: Former Haryana chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda is the man of the moment. With his party on comeback trail with 32 seats, he lost no time in reaching out to the Opposition parties to sew up an alliance against the BJP government.
However, he has the BJP breathing down his neck with 36 seats, which is just six short of a majority. Redemption may come in the form of Dushyant Chautala whose JJP has won 10 seats.
He is a probable kingmaker but may have reservations about joining hands with Hooda. While there has been no official announcement, sources told India Today TV that the JJP would support the BJP to form the next government in Haryana.
The spotlight has also turned on the Independent candidates and Hooda has warned the BJP against taking undue advantage of them. Independent candidates have won seven seats, while the Indian National Lok Dal has won one seat -- Ellanabad -- from where its leader Abhay Singh Chautala got elected.
Two Independent candidates, in fact, have been ferried to Delhi in a chartered plane by BJP MP Sunita Duggal. When confronted, her cryptic response was that "It is an internal matter of the BJP."
Hooda gave an inkling of his game plan when he said: "There is an anti-BJP mandate in Haryana. We have to respect that. We want to appeal to all non- BJP parties to come together to honour this mandate and form an alternative government."
The call is likely to test the ingenuity of Amit Shah and other Bharatiya Janata Party strategists.
Meanwhile, the Congress addressed a press conference and dubbed Haryana assembly election result as "a moral defeat for the BJP," saying that the Central leadership of the ruling party was clueless about the ground reality in the state.
"We accept the people's mandate humbly and respectfully. We also want to say that it is a moral defeat for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and their entire leadership were cut off from the ground reality," Congress leader Anand Sharma said.
