| NEW DELHI, JUNE 14:
A confident Haryana Congress, looking forward to a repeat of its success in the Lok Sabha polls in the Assembly elections due to take place at the year end, received six Independent legislators into its fold on Monday.
While switching sides is a usual pre-poll phenomenon in the aya-ram-gaya-ram politics of Haryana, such moves clearly give a psychological upper edge to the ‘winning’ party. It’s also being viewed as the Congress’ effort to muster numbers for two Rajya Sabha seats from the state, due to fall vacant this month-end.
Six MLAs — Dev Raj Diwan (Sonepat), Bhim Sen Mehta (Indri), Jai Prakash Gupta (Karnal), Rajinder Singh Bisla (Ballabgarh), Mulla Ram (Narnaul) and Daryo Singh Rajora (Jhajjar) — accompanied by Haryana Congress leader and MP Bhupinder Singh Hooda joined the party in the presence of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi this morning.
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Meanwhile, labelling the Independents’ joining the Congress as sheer ‘‘opportunism’’, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) alleged that the ‘‘Congress must have shown them greener pastures, especially with the Rajya Sabha polls around the corner’’.
The 90-member Haryana Assembly has an effective strength of 84 with three MLAs — Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rao Inderjit Singh and Jai Prakash — having resigned after winning the LS elections.
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