In a clear signal to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who expanded his Council of Ministers on Saturday, the Congress High Command constituted a Coordination Committee for the state which included many of his detractors.

The seven-member committee will be chaired by AICC general secretary Prithviraj Chavan and co-chaired by Birendra Singh, former state Finance Minister and known Hooda-baiter.

Two other prominent members of Hooda’s rival camp, Union Minister Kumari Selja and Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, also found a place in the committee that is supposed to coordinate between the party and the government and to monitor the latter’s performance. Other members of the committee included the CM, the PCC chief and senior leader Dr Ram Prakash. The announcement of the Coordination Committee, coming within hours of the expansion of the Hooda Cabinet, was also indicative of the high command attempt to keep Hooda in check.

The significance of this Coordination Committee in Haryana can be explained with reference to a similar committee in Maharashtra headed by then AICC General Secretary Margaret Alva. The Maharashtra committee had become the rallying point for all detractors of then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh who found himself besieged from within as the committee frequently made adverse pronouncements about his government’s performance.

The Coordination Committee in Haryana comes in the backdrop of adverse reports about Hooda’s style of functioning by AICC observers who had been sent to Chandigarh to seek opinion of newly elected observers after the election results were out. The observers were learnt to have blamed the CM’s autocratic manner of dealing with dissenting voices in the state for the party’s below par show in the Assembly elections. In fact, at one point of time during deliberations to choose the next CM in Haryana, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her close advisors had even discussed the name of Kumari Selja, propped up by anti-Hooda camp, for the CM’s post.