Chandigarh, July 27
“The right man has come to the right party.” This is how Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda welcomed former senior INLD leader Sampat Singh to the Congress here today.

Terming his joining the Congress as “unconditional”, Sampat Singh said before Hooda became the Chief Minister, Haryana was suffering from “tribal politics”, which included vendetta against political opponents. Without naming any leader, Sampat Singh said certain leaders in the past got sadistic pleasure by harassing their opponents. However, he said, Hooda changed all that. Instead of going after his opponents, Hooda had concentrated on the development of the state, particularly in the field of infrastructure.

He denied that he had joined the Congress in view of its “sure victory” in the next Assembly elections.

Sampat Singh said it was true that the INLD could not win the next elections. But it was usual for political parties to go through ups and downs. He said after Bhajan Lal was sworn in as the Chief Minister instead of Devi Lal in 1982, all MLAs, except nine, deserted the Lok Dal leader. He was one of those nine MLAs though at that time he had won as an Independent.

He sought the confirmation of his assertion from Haryana Congress president Phool Chand Mullana. But there was not much enthusiastic response from Mullana, who was among those MLAs who had shifted their loyalties from Devi Lal to Bhajan Lal in 1982.

In a hard-hitting manner, Sampat Singh alleged that since the day Om Prakash Chautala took the command of the INLD, he sought to subvert the policies of Devi Lal. These were given a complete go-by during the INLD regime from 2000 to 2005. He also alleged that there had always been an “unholy hidden alliance” between Chautala and Bhajan Lal. This alliance first became public in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections when Ajay Singh Chautala won by a margin of 52,000 votes from the Adampur Assembly segment, the stronghold of Bhajan Lal. This alliance, he alleged, was at full play during the recent Lok Sabha elections, particularly in the Hisar constituency, in which Sampat Singh lost to Bhajan Lal by a narrow margin of about 7,000 votes.

He also accused Chautala of having “commercialised” the INLD.

He said he had joined the Congress as a worker and would carry out whatever duty was assigned to him by the leadership.

Along with Sampat Singh, 101 office-bearers of the INLD at various levels also joined the Congress. He said many more of his supporters would join the Congress at the district level.

Mullana assured all those who joined the Congress that due honour would be given to them in the party.

Haryana Congress working president Kuldeep Sharma; Revenue Minister Savitri Jindal; Parliamentary Secretary Krishna Pandit; the Political Adviser to the Chief Minister, Prof Virender; Media Adviser to the Chief Minister Sunder Pal Singh; and several other senior Congress leaders were also present in the Congress office to welcome Sampat Singh, who was accompanied by his wife Krishna.

Defections from Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) may have wreaked havoc with Om Parkash Chautala’s political gambit, yet it does not augur well for the Congress either.

A strong wave of resentment is brewing both within the ruling party and against the present leadership over the issue of induction of senior INLD leaders in the Congress.

While Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s camp is “jubilant” over developments in the INLD, the main opposition party, his rivals within the Haryana Congress Legislature Party are using the defections and inductions as the provocation to get united. They have a common platform to carry out a tirade against the minister for side stepping or overlooking long time and committed party workers.

As of now, Sushil Indora, Bahadur Singh, ML Ranga and Krishan Chand have already joined the Congress, while former Finance Minister Sampat Singh was expected to be part of the bandwagon from today onwards.

Only yesterday, Finance Minister Birender Singh was quoted as saying that he has not given up his claim for Chief Ministership and would be a candidate to be the leader of the House in case of the Congress being voted back to power in the state.

His support group has started growing bigger because of the recent developments in the Haryana Congress and those watching the developments that though the CM was feeling elated at the moment, he may have to pay a heavy price in long run.

It is not only Birnder Singh but also several others, including some members of the state Council of Ministers and state representatives in the Union Council of Ministers, who have not taken well to the induction of the INLD leaders in the Congress.

It is not Birender Singh alone, even other ministers and party leaders, including Kiran Chaudhary and Kumari Selja, have more than once reflected their “distancing proximity” from the CM.

Main apprehension of the Haryana Congress leaders has been that Bhupinder Hooda would include most of the senior INLD leaders in his projected list of candidates for the coming Assembly elections, meaning thereby that some of the loyalist party workers may be sacrificed. This apprehension has infuriated the anti-Bhupinder Singh Hooda lobby in the state, members of which have been finding sympathisers in the party high command in New Delhi as well.

Some of the known rebels within the Haryana Congress Legislature Party and loyalist Congressmen apprehend that their claims for party ticket were being taken away by the Chief Ministers’ overtures to get “disgruntled INLD leaders” as possible in the Congress.

“No one is coming to the Congress for the love of party or its leadership. They are coming with the sole intention of getting the Congress ticket for the Assembly elections,” maintains a senior Congress leader. “It will be important for Bhupinder Hooda to keep his original herd together, than go for the new political sheep,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress high command has reportedly turned down again the recommendation of the state government for a separate Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee for the state. The Congress high command does not want to antagonise Sikhs any more.