Winning Haryana, Insists Bhupinder Hooda, Body Language Says Otherwise

Putting on a brave face despite counting trends see-sawing and tilting in the BJP's favour after giving the Congress a comfortable lead, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has said his party will form a government in Haryana.

Speaking to reporters around 10.15 am, when the BJP was leading in 48 seats in Haryana - three over the halfway mark - Mr Hooda insisted that the Congress would get a majority on its own. When he was asked the question repeatedly, Mr Hooda maintained his stand, but his body language appeared to betray him.

The generally upbeat Congress leader appeared very neutral, even a little downcast, when he was asked about trends showing the BJP in the lead. "The Congress is going to form a government in the state. Only two or three rounds of counting have been completed. The reports we are getting are saying that the Congress will have a majority," he said in Hindi.

Mr Hooda stressed that the Congress will not need any party's support to form the government and when the same question was asked more than once, he appeared to snap, saying, "I have said it, how many times do you want me to say the same thing?" He admitted there are close contests in some seats but stressed that they would not stop the Congress from coming to power in Haryana. 

To a question on who would become the chief minister, given the fairly open jostling between him and senior leader Kumari Selja, Mr Hooda said the party would decide and gave the credit for the "victory" to the people of Haryana, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi and other senior leaders. 

Celebrations Pause

The Congress headquarters in New Delhi also saw the mood changing in a span of a few hours. After exit polls predicted a clear, comfortable victory for the Congress, celebrations started at the party headquarters in New Delhi even before the counting of votes began on Tuesday morning and gained tempo after initial trends pointed to the same result. They turned muted as the BJP started gaining seats and crossed the halfway mark in the leads. 

Should the leads hold, a loss in Haryana will be a major setback for the Congress, which had been talking of a resurgence after winning 99 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP was seen to be battling anti-incumbency and anger from farmers, sportspersons as well as aspirants for the armed forces, and experts are already saying that the Congress has managed to "snatch defeat from the jaws of victory".