By Jaideep Sarin
Chandigarh, Oct 22 (IANS) This is one triumph that will haunt the Congress in Haryana for a long time. In trying to return to power - a feat not achieved since 1972 by any government that has completed one term in the state - the party has tasted defeat in its near victory.
The Congress finally managed to get 40 seats in the 90-member assembly for which results were declared Thursday. But the figure was six seats short of a simple majority in the state assembly.
With Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda beginning the day with a game of badminton at his hometown Rohtak's Services Club - TV cameras, OB vans and supporters in tow, there may have been an impression that the Congress would romp home comfortably as results poured in.
By evening though, the Congress was left wanting in numbers to easily form the next government in the state. It will now have to rely on support from either the seven winning independent candidates or take support from one of the smaller parties to come to power and then stay there.
However, the possibility of support from any other party for the Congress is remote in the present circumstances.
This is the same Congress, which won 67 seats in the February 2005 assembly polls and followed it up as late as May this year when it won nine out of 10 Lok Sabha seats in the parliamentary polls.
In this year's Lok Sabha election, the Congress had led in 59 out of 90 assembly segments and that was the biggest reason for Hooda's government to get the previous assembly dissolved seven months ahead of the end of its term and seek fresh assembly elections.
With the Congress not winning absolute numbers, voices are already being raised against the 'formidable' leadership of Hooda, whose writ ran large in Haryana smoothly in the last four-and-a-half years.
He did have dissenting political voices within the Congress in leaders like his Finance Minister Birender Singh, who lost narrowly by 621 votes to Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) president Om Prakash Chautala, Forest Minister Kiran Chaudhary and even union minister Kumari Selja. Some of them will now demand his scalp for the Congress showing in the Oct 13 poll.
Still, Hooda says, only the Congress will form the next government.
Chautala has already sought Hooda's resignation on moral grounds saying Haryana's electorate had rejected his policies and style of functioning. He has sought that the state governor invite the opposition parties to form the next government.
The INLD itself has returned with 31 assembly seats on its own - much better than the nine seats in the February 2005 poll. Alliance partner Akali Dal's one seat makes the tally 32.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had earlier been in alliance with the INLD, has won four seats.
The Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), floated by former chief minister Bhajan Lal and his son Kuldeep Bishnoi, managed its first assembly outing by bagging six seats.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) managed just one seat.
Compared to the virtual decimation of the opposition in the previous assembly, the Congress, if it forms the next government, will have a big opposition to cope with in the house.