"Would Have Won A Full Majority If...": Congress's Man Of Moment BS Hooda

The Congress surprised itself in Haryana today as it seemed to have pulled off an unexpected double-figure tally in the BJP-ruled state. The counting of votes threw up the possibility of a fractured verdict, leaving the party in with a chance of coming to power with support from Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).

The Congress's man of the moment in Haryana is Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the party's old warhorse and two-time chief minister.

The Congress won 31 of Haryana's 90 seats, giving a close fight to the BJP, which won 40 seats.

"We would have won a full majority if we had more time. The trends are in our favour," Mr Hooda told NDTV.

Senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad concurred with the view, as he told NDTV that the Congress would have performed much better if Mr Hooda had been in action six months earlier.

Mr Hooda, sidelined for a long time as a much younger Ashok Tanwar led the Haryana Congress, was back in the saddle in September, when Sonia Gandhi replaced Mr Tanwar with Kumari Selja.

As counting of votes indicated a hung verdict in Haryana, Mr Hooda and his son Deepinder Hooda did not waste much time in working the phones.

Reports suggested the Hoodas were in touch with Dushyant Chautala, projected as a kingmaker in the event of a close fight.

"People want a strong government with the Congress, JJP and other parties,"Mr Hooda said, confirming that Congress's outreach to Mr Chautala.

Asked whether Mr Chautala had been offered the chief minister's post, Mr Hooda demurred: "No, we haven't spoken about that."

Would he be the Chief Minister for a third time? "MLAs will decide. We will talk about a coalition. We have to respect the mandate," Mr Hooda said.

His son Deepender Hooda said the Congress would analyse the public mandate to decide on the chief minister.

"We want to tell Dushyant Chautala to come together with us. Each MLA of their party has been chosen to throw out the BJP," said Hooda junior.