Chautala cites Rajiv, calls for Oppn govt

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

Haryana restricts 8-hr power supply to industries

Chandigarh: With Haryana facing the prospects of a hung Assembly, INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala on Thursday said the Governor should invite the Opposition parties first and give them an opportunity to form the government.

“We appeal to the Governor to invite the opposition parties first, which have emerged as the largest group. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda should immediately step down and Congress should not stake its claim to form the government,” the former CM said.

Citing a precedent, he said, “Congress was the single largest party in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, but it did not stake its claim to form the government then.”

“The Congress under (late PM) Rajiv Gandhi did not stake claim then and now also when they have not got the clear mandate, they should follow in Rajiv’s footsteps and not stake claim,” he said.

Despite BJP snapping ties with it shortly before the polls, Chautala said he still has good friends in that party and would not hesitate to approach them.

“It is not the political relations that I have with the BJP, I have personal relations with AB Vajpayee, L K Advani and BJP chief Rajnath Singh. We will talk to the BJP,” Chautala said indicating he was not averse to seeking their support.

INLD, which has won 25 of the 71 seats declared and was ahead in six other places, has greatly improved over its performance of nine seats in 2005 Assembly elections and failure to open its account in May Lok Sabha polls.

SAD opens account outside Punjab

CHANDIGARH: With Kalanwali, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) managed to win a seat on its own symbol outside Punjab for the first time in its history. The party had allied with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and had put up candidates at two seats -- Kalanwali and Ambala City. SAD had earlier contested two seats in the Delhi Assembly polls, which it lost, and had also faced defeat on the lone seat it contested in the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha elections. On Thursday, the party candidate from Kalanwali, Charanjit Singh Rori, won by 12,544 votes against Sushil Kumar Indora of the Congress. In Ambala City, however, SAD's Charanjit Kaur lost to Congress veteran Venod Sharma. A jubilant Sukhbir Badal said: "Sikhs in Haryana have understood the nefarious game of the Congress to divide and weaken them over the issue of a separate SGPC."

‘Absentee’ PCC chief loses