Haryana has become the least safe state under BJP

Bhupinder Singh Hooda got the sobriquet ‘Ganga Putra’ after a narrow escape from death in 2003 when his car was swept away by the flooded river Pili in Haridwar.

- SONI MISHRA

Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Haryana chief minister

He is a survivor in politics as well. After a series of electoral debacles since 2014, he was sidelined in state politics. But he clawed his way back in, making it clear to the Congress leadership that he was indispensable for the party in the state. Just ahead of the assembly elections in 2019, Hooda had, in a massive rally in his home turf Rohtak, virtually declared himself the chief ministerial candidate with or without the Congress. He had the support of 12 of the Congress’s 15 MLAs. It made the desired impact, as the party replaced Ashok Tanwar with Kumari Selja as state unit president and Hooda was named leader of the Congress legislature party and chief of the election management committee. The party did well, getting 31 seats and pulling the BJP below 40 in the 90-member Vidhan Sabha.

Hooda, 76, was chief minister for two terms between 2004 and 2014. A lot rides on his shoulders this time round, with the Congress leadership having virtually handed him the control of the campaign. This may also be his last chance at electoral redemption. At a meeting with the central leadership, he is learnt to have said that this could be his last election. Son of freedom fighter Ranbir Singh Hooda, he took the political plunge in 1972 when he was appointed president of the Kiloi block in Rohtak.

He worked his way up the ladder, maneuvering a political landscape dominated by the Chautalas, Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal. His stature grew when he defeated the Jat stalwart Devi Lal in the Rohtak Lok Sabha constituency in 1991. He repeated the feat in 1996 and 1998. He was appointed state Congress president in 1996 and held the post till 2001.

Over the years, he has consolidated his popularity among the Jat voters who comprise around 30 per cent of the state’s population. He has also fashioned himself as a leader empathetic to the concerns of farmers.