CHANDIGARH: With assembly election around the corner in Haryana, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been authorised by the 33 member panel which he had formed some time back to take the final decision on whether to remain in the Congress or not, as most of the members were of the view that he should not leave the decision to the party high command.
Sources said that the 33 member panel consisting of 13 MLAs who are considered to be loyal to Hooda, met the former Haryana CM at his house in Delhi on Tuesday.
The panel members met Hooda one by one and put forward their viewpoint on what should be the further course of action.
It is learnt that the majority of them were of the view that the senior Congress leader should not leave the party.
A panel member said on condition of anonymity that the majority of members authorized the former chief minister to take the final decision and also told him to take it without wasting any more time and they were of the view that Hooda should not leave Congress as they just gave him their feedback.
Sources said that the issue of leaving the party and forming a new outfit was not discussed at all.
It is learnt that some of the members had also appealed to the party high command to take a decision quickly on the state leadership as elections are in October, with the Model Code of Conduct will be in place soon.
If Hooda is not made the state unit president then the party cannot even win two assembly seats.
In the recent meeting with interim congress president Sonia Gandhi, Hooda had reportedly demanded that the present state unit chief Ashok Tanwar who was appointed in 2014 and considered close to Rahul Gandhi should be replaced by the former CM.
Already the ruling BJP had started it’s election campaign and has set a target of winning 75 seats out of a total of 90 seats while the Congress is not to be seen anywhere.
Both the party high command and Hooda are trying to buy time from each other.
Now Hooda has to take the final call.
As at the rally in Rohtak on August 18 he had formed this panel to guide him and had also then said the Congress had lost its way and had praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the abrogation of Article 370.