Congress all set to form the government in Haryana

HaryanaThe Congress is all set to form the government in Haryana once again after managing the support of seven independents.

With their support, the party will have a total strength of 47 in the 90-member House, crossing the half way mark of 45. The Congress had won 40 seats when results were declared on Thursday and its formation of the government was dependent on either the support of the Independents or the support of Bhajan Lal's Haryana Janhit party.

Sources said that the seven independents were paraded before senior leaders of the Congress late last night and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda may now set into motion, the process of forming the new government. He is likely to get the High Command's nod to do so.

Sources said that the Congress was also exploring the possibility of breaking the Janhit party and is expected to garner the support of most of its six MLAs. The Janhit Party had laid three conditions for supporting the Congress, the foremost being replacing Hooda as the leader of the Congress. The other two conditions were to accommodate Bhajan Lal in the Cabinet and make his younger son Kuldeep Bishnoi as the deputy CM.

The Congress leadership has rejected these conditions and given a go ahead to the party to rope in as many MLAs as possible. If that happens, the Congress will have nearly 50- member strength in the House. Hectic activity took place throughout the night and some announcements are likely to be made by this evening.