Haryana Congress seeks unconditional support

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda

NEW DELHI: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has said the Congress would accept unconditional support from any party for its new government but parried questions whether Bhajan Lal's Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) would be inducted into it.

"If somebody gives unconditional support they are welcome. No conditions. Anybody who is ready to give support, we will take," he told reporters here.

He was replying to a question on the Congress stand on HJC leader Kuldeep Bishnoi's statement that his party would like to be part of the new government to be formed.

The Chief Minister, who forced early elections in a gamble that failed, expressed confidence that the Congress would form the next government.

"We are going to form the government. The PCC President has already met the Governor and staked our claim to form the government. We have the unconditional support of 7 independents. And Constitutionally too we have emerged the single largest party," he said.

In the 90-member Assembly in Haryana, the Congress has won 40 seats, six short of the majority, and has claimed the support of all the seven Independents. It had 67 seats in the dissolved Assembly.

-PTI