Chandigarh: Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the former chief minister of Haryana, declared on Saturday that his party will easily form the government and that the high command would decide the CM's appearance based on the input of Congress MLAs.
After the votes closed and multiple exit polls indicated that Congress would win in the Haryana polls, he made these comments.
“We are forming the government with a comfortable majority,” 77-year-old Hooda told reporters at his Rohtak residence, the New Indian Express reported.
On exit polls, the 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.”
Hooda restated the party's established process, which states that "the opinion of the party MLAs will be sought and the high command will decide," on who will be the chief minister in the event that the Congress wins power. Hooda responded that everyone can have ambitions in politics when asked if Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala are also running for the positions of chief minister. “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.”
Referring to the BJP-led Haryana government as a “non-performing” government, he claimed that under their leadership, unemployment and corruption had reached an all-time high and that all segments of the population were fed up with it.
CM Nayab Singh Saini, meanwhile, expressed his continued optimism for a stronger showing from the BJP. “We are eagerly awaiting the outcome,” he said.