Sharique N Siddiquie
Haryana election victory for Congress
For the first time ever in the history electoral politics in India, Haryana witnessed the return of the ruling party. Infamous for changing government ever 5 years and sometimes even before that, Haryana couldn’t ignore the phenomenal development under the leadership of Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Riding high on the Congress wave, the report card of Central government and his own developmental works, Hooda returned to power in style, though with lesser number of seats this time courtesy the original stalwart of Haryana, Bhajan Lal.
End of Bhajanlal’s era
The Haryana Assembly elections this year saw the end of an era called Bhajan Lal. The self proclaimed PhD in Poilitics, got the bitter taste of his own medicine when 5 out of 6 MLAs of his Haryana Janhit Congress defected to Congress to be a part of the BS Hooda led state government.
When Bhajan Lal had defected Congress MLAs to become the Chief Minister in 1979 he would have never thought that he will be facing a similar fate at the twilight of his career.
His efforts to upset Congress government by asking for ‘retirement vote’, was nullified by the defection of his own MLAs. On the personal front also, his son and former Deputy CM of Haryana, Chander Mohan also caused him a lot of embarrassment over his affair with Fiza aka Anuradha Bali for whom he even converted to Islam.
Chand-Fiza love story
The Chand-Fiza love saga continued to make headlines all through the year. The love story started with Chand Mohammed aka Chander Mohan, the deputy CM of Haryana and son of seasoned politician Bhajan Lal marrying former Assistant Advocate General in Punjab Anuradha Bali by converting to Islam.
What followed was nothing short of a typical Bollywood pot-boiler. Soon after, the doomed relationship came under attacks from all quarters including Muslim organisations who termed conversion for marriage a ‘deplorable act’ and opposition within his own party leading to his resignation from the esteemed post.
Such fierce opposition was bound to take its toll on the relationship, and soon news of their break-up started pouring in. After some dramatic twists and turns like the disappearance of Chand and suicide attempt of Fiza, the story finally ended with Chander Mohan once again going back to his family and Fiza left in disarray.
