New Delhi, November 2: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday appointed former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the Congress Legislature Party leader in the state.
AICC general secretary for the state Ghulam Nabi Azad made the announcement at a press conference here.
Azad said Hooda had proposed at a CLP meet in Chandigarh on Friday that the Congress president be authorised to name the CLP leader.
The 72-year-old Hooda returns to the Congress affairs after a break of nearly five and a half years since he was replaced as the state Congress president with Ashok Tanwar.
Hooda, an old warhorse, was brought in at the last minute as CLP leader in Haryana along with Kumari Selja, the new state unit chief, who replaced Tanwar.
The two covered much ground in the state to win 31 of the 90 Assembly seats, a performance not even the Congress expected.
Hooda was on Saturday renamed as CLP leader for continuity of the new team and with the aim of rejuvenating party cadres in Haryana.
With Hooda’s appointment the path is clear for him to be named the Leader of Opposition in Haryana.
Hooda’s appointment also shows that Sonia Gandhi is willing to back him in the ongoing cases of alleged corruption against him.
Further, the party is all set to reclaim the primacy in Jat community which voted to elect JJP members on many seats despite the Congress candidates being available.
The first task for the new CLP would be the assessment of state results, followed by a strategy to corner the Khattar government.
