Chandigarh, August 21
Governor Jagannath Pahadia today dissolved the 90-member Assembly to pave the way for early elections in the state on the recommendation of the Haryana government.

It is learnt that the Governor signed on the recommendation of the Cabinet this evening. With this, the Hooda regime has been reduced to the status of a caretaker government. Information regarding the dissolution of the House will be sent to the office of the President of India and the Secretary, Election Commission of India, tomorrow, while the state government has already received it. Elections in Haryana are expected to be held in October along with Maharashtra and other states.

Earlier in the day, the Haryana Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, unanimously recommended the dissolution of the House, six months ahead of its term which ends in February next year. The present Assembly was constituted on March 20, 2005. Five seats were at present vacant in the House, which had 64 Congress MLAs. The Chief Minister, who briefly addressed the media after the meeting, said, “The decision was taken in view of a growing public demand for holding early elections”.

“INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala, too, was demanding an early poll. We decided to accept his suggestion,” he said in a lighter vein.

This meeting of the Cabinet was earlier slated for August 18 but had to be postponed owing to the death of state’s Cabinet Minister Kartar Devi. The move is on expected lines since the Congress is keen on cashing in on the “wave” that helped it virtually sweep the recent General Election in the state. The party ended up winning nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats and has been keen on an early poll since then.

Another “provocation” for an early poll has been the disarray in the Opposition. Though the BJP and the INLD are in alliance since the Lok Sabha elections and the HJC and the BSP joined hands post-poll, the two alliances are still in the process of organising themselves.

Congress leaders feel that giving more time will only give an opportunity to the Opposition to get its act together. Also, the party wants to cash in on the setback to the Opposition after some of its senior leaders joined the Congress in the run-up to an early poll.

Meanwhile, INLD leader Om Parkash Chautala welcomed the decision of an early poll which, he said, would go against the Congress. Interestingly, in Haryana, only two governments have completed their full term of five years while all other Assemblies have been dissolved earlier for various reasons. The two governments to be able to complete a full term were of the sixth Assembly from 1982-87 (first under Bhajan Lal and then with Bansi Lal as the Chief Minister) and the 10th Assembly from 2000-2005 under the chief ministership of Om Prakash Chautala.