Haryana ex-CM Bhupinder Hooda meets Sonia Gandhi on Haryana poll strategy, says ‘ticket can’t be taken for granted’

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, July 16

Former Haryana Chief Minister and state Congress stalwart Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday met chairperson of the parliamentary party Sonia Gandhi in the capital and pledged unity ahead of the crucial Assembly poll scheduled later this year.

“We will win the Haryana elections convincingly. All 36 communities of the state have united behind the Congress and are determined to ensure its victory,” said the veteran leader confident that the party has support of all sections in the state.

He said the trend was visible in Lok Sabha elections where the Congress bagged five of the 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state as against zero in 2019.

Hooda also said no one in the party, neither ticket hopefuls nor sitting MLAs, could take the Congress nomination for the upcoming Assembly election for granted.

“Winnability will be the top criterion for selection of candidates and surveys will be undertaken to assess the popularity of people in their constituencies. People have been asked to apply for tickets by the end of July after which the process of commissioning of winnability assessment surveys will begin,” said Hooda as the Congress plans an early start to poll preparations amid indications that sitting MLAs, if found facing anti-incumbency, could be dropped.

Asked whether he saw factionalism in the state unit as a challenge, Hooda said there was no disunity in ranks.

“We are all united and will go the polls together,” said the former CM widely seen as the principal face of the Congress campaign in the state though he had growing competition from another formidable state leader Kumari Selja who proved her strength by recently winning the Sirsa Lok Sabha poll big defeating former state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar.

The former Chief Minister also said the party had begun preparations for candidate nominations and had asked probables to apply for tickets by July-end. The ruling BJP which has been in power in Haryana for two terms will be eyeing a hattrick this time.

Aspirants’ popularity will be assessed

Winnability will be the top criterion for selection of candidates and surveys will be undertaken to assess the popularity of people in their constituencies. — Bhupinder Singh Hooda, ex-CM