New Delhi: With Maharashtra and Harayana Assembly polls out, regional parties can now breath easy as Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and former Haryana chief minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda both have performed well ending the speculations about the end of their political career.
NCP Chief Sharad Pawar who had not lost one election since 1976 through out his five decade political career, failed to become PM after Congress chose PV Narasimha as the PM in 1991 after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, TS reported.
Ever since then neither the NCP nor its ally the Congress was in good health facing infighting, factionalism and demoralization.
But his appeal to people to give him one last chance to prove himself had actually worked for him this time.
His party alone overtook Congress securing third in the state after the BJP and Shiv Sena. Suddenly it has become the big brother of the alliance overtaking the Congress, which had a strong base at one point of time.
On the hand Hooda who has already been two-time chief minister of Haryana and too had a strong hold in the party, but Congress’s defeat in the year 2014 weakened him too.
Back then Mr Gandhi had sidelined him, which has deeply upset Mr hooda who went on to think of launching his own outfit leaving the party.
But since Sonia Gandhi returned to power after Rahul Gandhi resigned, Mr Hooda’s good relations with Sonia restored his prestige as the election campaign chief and made Kumari Selja the Pradesh Congress president removing Ashok Tanwar.
Mr Hood who has deep roots in the state and was able to revive the party with Selja within a short time with the result the Congress has more than doubled its tally.
Despite excellent performance by Mr Hooda and Selja, the saffron party emerged out as the single largest party.