Chandigarh, October 27
The one-day Haryana Assembly session tomorrow, in which Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will prove his majority, is likely to be stormy. The rejuvenated INLD led by former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala will be at its aggressive best. And the ruling party will be in a hurry to finish the agenda of the day as fast as possible.
Once the members are administered the oath, the INLD members are likely to be up on their legs, accusing the government of having kept the seven Independent MLAs in its “illegal custody” and demanding their release.
The treasury benches will, of course, vehemently deny the charge. It is to be seen who, on behalf of the ruling party, will be more vocal. Besides Hooda, former Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala will be among those who would try to repulse the INLD attack. However, Former Finance Minister Sampat Singh, who is a good debater, will assist the ruling party against his former political colleagues, which will be interesting to watch. The INLD members will most likely try to obstruct him at every stage. Haryana Congress Working president Kuldeep Sharma is also known to have an aggressive temperament.
One thing is for sure, the Congress MLAs will have to forget the recent bitter history over the leadership issue and put up a united fight to subdue the INLD members.
So far, the tentative agenda of the session stands. The first sitting in the morning will be comparatively peaceful as the members will be administered the oath. At the time of the election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, there can be noisy scenes. If the INLD also fields anyone for these posts, its members are likely
to demand a secret ballot.
Neither the ruling party nor the INLD, which is the main opposition party, have disclosed their strategies for the posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
The second sitting, to be held in the afternoon, will open with the Governor’s address, which is likely to be brief, mainly based on the Congress election manifesto as the government has not yet got the time to set its priorities. The Governor being new to the state, the opposition will not show him any disrespect.
The obituary references will also be a tame and customary affair.
The things will hot up once the Chief Minister moves the confidence motion. The Opposition will demand a lengthy debate on it, while the government may come up with a suggestion to first vote on the motion and then go for a debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address to the House.
Meanwhile, six HJC members have reached Chandigarh amidst heavy private security. They have been put up in two five-star hotels. HJC leader Kuldeep Bishnoi has not yet opened his cards.
