Disillusioned with Hooda Govt, Power Min Quits

CHANDIGARH: With just a couple of months to go before Haryana heads to the polls, state Power Minister Capt Ajay Yadav on Sunday resigned from the Cabinet in protest against the alleged discrimination shown by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Later, Yadav handed over his resignation to the CM.

The resignation is expected to hamper the Congress’ attempts to hold on to power in the state, which it has ruled for the last 10 years. 

A powerful Ahir leader Yadav, who represents  Rewari in the state Assembly, attributed his resignation to Hooda’s attempts to sideline him.

Besides, he had been upset with the alleged parochialism shown by Hooda in awarding developmental projects.

“I had to make the sacrifice of resigning under compulsion when the bias in matters of development, recruitment, induction of members of various commissions (RTI, RTS) and other statutory bodies. The party failed to learn any lessons from the Lok Sabha debacle,” he said.

And matters between the Power Minister and the Chief  Minister came to a pass when Yadav, who had serious differences with Hooda over Haryana’s land acquisition policy,took up the cause of the farmers in Rewari and demanded that they be given more compensation.

A clash between the farmers and police had ensued, which left several protesters injured.Even though  Hooda held a meeting with the farmers in Delhi to break the deadlock Yadav was not invited.

Incidentally, fellow Ahir leader, Rao Inderjeet Singh, who had crossed over to the BJP last year after quitting the Haryana Congress, is currently an MoS in Narendra Modi-led BJP-NDA Government.

Earlier, veteran Congress leader Chaudhary Birendra Singh had also questioned the functioning of the Haryana government. Singh had even met the then BJP president Rajnath Singh,fuelling speculation that he may join the BJP.

Last month, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had asked the Congress top brass in Haryana to  stand united in the wake of the internecine bickerings that came to the fore after the Lok Sabha poll fiasco.

For sometime now, there have been growing calls for a change of guard in the state from Hooda’s detractors. However, the high command  has ruled out any such possibility.

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