Chandigarh: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Biplab Kumar Deb, who is co-incharge of the party in Haryana, today challenged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to declare former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda as his party's chief ministerial candidate. "If Congress has so much confidence (of returning to power), let Rahul Gandhi declare Hooda as the CM candidate. His party will lose badly in Haryana," he said.
Replying to questions at the day-long India TV Conclave "Chunav Manch" here, Deb said, "On one hand BJP is fighting Haryana elections with incumbent Nayab Singh Saini as its chief ministerial candidate, but the Congress is still undecided. Congress is unwilling to declare Bhupinder Hooda as its chief ministerial candidate because there are other claimants. Kumari Selja has been sidelined by the Hooda family in this election."
The former Tripura Chief Minister said: "Ten years ago when Bhupinder Hooda was Haryana CM, he had declared his state as No.1 throughout India. Then why did his party lose? It is because of this that the Congress is not declaring its CM candidate."
Asked why Manohar Lal Khattar was replaced by Nayab Singh Saini as CM on the eve of Haryana elections, Deb replied: "Yeh BJP ka ran-kaushal hai (This is BJP's strategy). Even in Tripura, I was replaced before the elections, and BJP won the polls. Nayab Singh Saini will be the next chief minister of Haryana again."
Deb said, "Historical trends show that in the states, BJP governments are repeated, but Congress governments are not repeated. BJP has the organisation and leadership, but Congress works only for a single family. As far as anti-incumbency (in Haryana) is concerned, you cannot please everybody, but it is a fact that there has been no corruption, no "kharchi, parchi" for government jobs during BJP rule. Social pension is being disbursed online in Haryana to the aged."
