Haryana polls: Congress will form govt with comfortable majority, says Hooda after polling ends

Hooda shows his ink-marked finger after casting his vote during Haryana Assembly elections. Pic/PTI

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday said his party is going to form government with comfortable majority and reiterated that the decision on CM's face will be taken by the high command on the opinion of the Congress MLAs.

He made these remarks after the polling ended and several exit polls predicted the Congress' victory in the Haryana polls.

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"We are forming the government with a comfortable majority," the 77-year-old Hooda told reporters at his Rohtak residence.

On several exit polls predicting a Congress victory, the senior Congress leader said, "I have been saying that according to our assessment, we are forming the government with a comfortable majority... I have been saying that people have decided to form the Congress government." On who will be the chief minister if the Congress comes to power, Hooda reiterated that there is a laid down procedure in the party, according to which "the opinion of the party MLAs will be sought and the high command will decide".

Asked that Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala are also aspirants for the CM's posts, Hooda said politics is such that one can have aspirations, "but there is a procedure that legislators will give their opinion and high command will decide".

On the BJP leaders saying their party will return to power, Hooda quipped, "What else will BJP say? They will come to know once results are out." Dubbing the BJP-led government in Haryana as a "non-performing" government, he said corruption and unemployment were at their peak under their dispensation while every section including farmers, employees, poor, labourers, women and youth were fed up with this government.

He said this election was also about "achievements of the previous Congress government versus the BJP's failures and their non-performance".

From once being a state which was number one in terms of per capita income, investment and in various other spheres, the state now tops in unemployment while law and order situation has deteriorated and drug menace has spread its tentacles, Hooda said.

The Congress veteran and two-time former chief minister, who is seeking re-election from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi in Rohtak district, had told reporters before going to cast his vote in village Sanghi in the district in the morning that the Congress will form the government and they have made up their mind to bring the party to power.

There is lot of enthusiasm among people, he said. This government is a "failure" and people have decided to oust them, he added.

"BJP ja rahi hai, Congress aa rahi hai (BJP is on way out while the Congress is coming back to power)," he said.

Polling for all the 90 assembly seats was held on Saturday. The BJP is in power in Haryana for last 10 years and the Congress, this time, is eyeing to wrest power. PTI SUN KSS KSS

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