Hooda, Bhajan Lal

New Delhi, Nov. 9: Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today engineered a split in Bhajan Lal’s Haryana Janhit Congress, four of whose legislators joined the Congress.

The four MLAs escaped the anti-defection law because they made up two-thirds of the HJC’s team of six in the House.

The Congress now has 44 members in the 90-member House, as well as the support of six Independents. Hooda can breathe easy because he can survive even if a few Independent MLAs ditch him.

Bhajan had resisted pressure to merge his party with the Congress and wanted to join the government as an ally. Hooda was working on these four MLAs from the beginning, angering Bhajan and his son Kuldeep Bishnoi, who had complained to the Congress’s central leaders.

The Congress high command tried to get father and son to agree to a merger before allowing Hooda to break their party.

Bhajan and Bishnoi knew about Hooda’s designs but refused to merge since they wanted to keep their separate identity till they were sure of regaining their clout within the Congress. They had abstained during the trial of strength and refused to give unconditional support to a Hooda-led government.

Hooda knew he would be better placed to negotiate with the HJC after the formation of the government. The six Independents’ support had given him only a thin majority but the doubts about his continuance as chief minister had been settled.

Once the message went out that Hooda was there to stay, the four HJC legislators decided to cross over, certain that Bhajan and Bishnoi too would have to join the Congress sooner or later.

The four legislators — Zile Ram, Vinod Bhayana, Satpal Sangwan and Rao Narender Singh — were flown into Chandigarh and presented before Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha. They gave letters to the Speaker saying they were breaking away from the HJC and joining the Congress.

Chatha immediately declared them Congress members, recognising the split as legal.

The HJC now has only two legislators, Bishnoi and Dharam Singh Chokker. Bhajan and Bishnoi have lost their bargaining power and must now play second fiddle to Hooda if they decide to join the Congress.