A Two-Laned Grand Trunk Road

The Congress opens up its Haryana game with a doosra: an Ahir leader as state chief, a Jat as CLP boss

- By Anilesh S. Mahajan

HARYANA'S POLITICAL MAP HAS TILTED a bit. Wrenching itself free of its singular reliance on ex-CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda's Jat overlordship, the Congress on September 29 named former minister Rao Narendra Singh as state president. Hooda will still head the legislative wing, CLP. The dual leadership is aimed at enabling a broader coalition spanning Jat, Ahir and Dalit votes, the fracturing of which had cost the party heavily in the 2024 assembly election. The BJP had swept southern Haryana: the Ahirwal belt, Rao's home turf. But a year on, the BJP exudes a sense of drift, sans a permanent state chief.