Even as it appeared that, with the truncated strength of the Congress in the new Haryana Assembly, the dissidents and party rebels would mount pressure on the party high command for a change of guard, came the news that their chief protagonist, Birender Singh, had suffered an unexpected defeat at the hands of the INLD supremo Om Parkash Chautala.

 For Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is likely to retain the office, the news about the narrow defeat of Birender Singh must have been the sole bit of relief. While no one, including Hooda, was expecting a re-run of the party’s performance in the previous Assembly elections or the recent Lok Sabha elections, the projections were for a comfortable victory. It was also expected that the narrower the victory margin for the Congress, the greater was the possibility of the challengers mounting pressure on the high command. Seats projected for the Congress post-election announcement fell, an indication that the INLD would gain, given the crowds Chautala was attracting at election rallies; but hardly anyone had expected him to do as well as he did.

Given the proximity of Hooda to the Gandhis and how well the state Congress did in the Lok Sabha elections, he is probably still going to be anointed the Congress Legislature Party leader and hence chief minister. But though he may form the government easily, running it will be tougher.

Although his chief detractor Birender Singh is out of the race, and will most likely to be rehabilitated in the party’s organisational structure at the centre, Hooda will have to remain on his toes with Chautala keeping up the pressure one the one hand and, on the other, middle-rung party leaders who are ambitious and do not see eye-to-eye with Hooda. These include union minister Shelja, who has the twin advantages of being a scheduled caste leader and a woman. Some of her favourites were denied tickets, for which she blames Hooda.

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