Congress leader Deepak Babaria on Sunday (June 30) indicated that the party may not announce a chief ministerial face for the Haryana Assembly Elections slated to be held later this year. The Congress general secretary in-charge of Haryana exuded confidence that the grand old party will win the elections with a big mandate and form its government in the state.
He said this after he was told that during a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) extended state executive at Panchkula on Saturday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the saffron party will contest the Haryana polls alone, under the leadership of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.
When asked if the Congress will declare its chief ministerial face before the polls like the BJP, Babaria pointed to the party's tradition of not doing any such thing.
"The Congress party's 70-year-old tradition is that whoever is elected by the legislature party ...and 99.99 precedence is that it authorises the Congress president...," he said.
The decision on the chief minister’s face will be taken in accordance with the elected legislators' wish, he asserted.
At the same time, Babaria also said, "It (chief ministerial face) is a major political decision. A confidentiality issue is also there, we do not want to go into its public debate."
Answering another question, he said that there were five contenders for the chief minister’s face in a state election last year but no one was projected as the chief ministerial face and the party still came to power with a majority.
"In Haryana too, we will come to power with a landslide victory," the Congress leader asserted.
(With PTI inputs)
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