Date:03/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/03/stories/2007120359901600.htm

National

Bhajan Lal floats party

Rohtak: Capping two-and-a-half years of strained ties since he was ignored by the high command for Chief Ministership in Haryana, veteran Congress leader Bhajan Lal and his son Kuldeep Bishnoi quit the party on Sunday.

At a largely-attended rally on the home turf of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, they unveiled a plaque marking the launch of a new party “Haryana Janhit Congress,” with the rising sun as its symbol. Mr. Bishnoi was suspended from the Congress for his diatribe against the leadership.

Mr. Bhajan Lal, 77, did not speak at the rally, but Mr. Bishnoi, Lok Sabha MP from Bhiwani who would be the president of the new outfit, mounted a scathing attack on Sonia Gandhi. He accused her of being “power-hungry” and “murdering democracy in the party by foisting Hooda as Chief Minister disregarding the wishes of the party MLAs and the people of the State.”

Mr. Bishnoi said the people voted Congress to power hoping that Mr. Bhajan Lal would be the Chief Minister. He alleged that Ms. Gandhi had “no respect for people’s “sentiments.” This is not the first time that Mr. Bhajan Lal has floated a party. Earlier, in the mid-1980s, he set up the Congress for Democracy and later merged it with the Congress.

The relations between the father-son duo and the Congress soured after the high command preferred Mr. Hooda, another Jat leader, over Mr. Bhajan Lal for Chief Ministership. Congress Legislature Party leader and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala said the high command would take an appropriate decision against Mr. Bhajan Lal.”

Mr. Bishnoi said he would quit his Lok Sabha seat in June next year. Besides Bhajan Lal, two other Congress MLAs — Rakesh Kamboj and Dharama Pal Malik — were present at the rally. — PTI

Unfazed

New Delhi Special Correspondent writes:

The Congress said on Sunday that the breaking away of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal would not have a fallout on the party.

“Those who know the political history of India, know what happens to those who leave the mother party. Those who do not know the lessons of history, are condemned to repeat it,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told The Hindu. At a separate rally in Shahbad, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the breaking away of Mr Lal would have no impact on the party. Mr Lal’s other son, Chander Mohan continues to be the Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana.