Congress plans to cut Hooda to size.

HARYANA chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda may have made it to the post.

But the Congress is planning to cut him down to size and ensure he does not grow larger than the party, like Y. S. Rajashekara Reddy in Andhra Pradesh.

The party is irked at Hooda's personalitycentric campaign for the state polls. " The party is unhappy that he projected only himself and ignored even the high command," a Congress leader said.

The Congress is working out a blueprint to use Bhajan Lal and his son Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi who head the Haryana Janhit Congress ( HJC). Some party leaders are trying to woo the father- son duo who had quit the Congress after Hooda was promoted at their cost.

The strategy is to absorb the HJC, which walked away with 6.2 per cent vote share in this election, into the Congress.

While Lal will be offered a Union cabinet berth, Bishnoi could be made deputy CM. " We have asked them to join the Congress and offered to accommodate their demands. This way, Hooda will remain the Jat face of the Congress and the Lal- Bishnoi combination will be the non- Jat face. Their presence in the party will keep Hooda in check," the leader said.

Minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, Prithviraj Chavan, is reportedly working out the details with the HJC Sources said had it not been for the impressive show of Indian National Lok Dal ( INLD), Hooda might have been replaced. But with INLD's revival being credited to Jat votes, the Congress retained him so as not to let its support among the community slide further.

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