Congress high command will take final call on Haryana CM pick keeping party interest in mind: Selja

New Delhi: Exuding confidence that the Congress will win over 60 seats in Haryana assembly elections, Sirsa MP Kumari Selja on Monday said the party high command would take a final call on the chief ministerial pick that would be acceptable to all.

Keeping the race for CM post open ahead of the assembly poll results, the senior Congress leader said the party high command would take the views of the MLAs and then take a final decision in the interest of the party.

"We feel that the Congress will get over 60 seats. The Congress has emerged as a major player in Haryana and it will form its government," she told reporters here.

Asked about the chief ministerial candidate, she said, "The CLP meeting takes place and the views of MLAs are taken, but the high command takes the final decision (on CM candidate) and that is the tradition in the party."

She further said, "There is nothing like a game. It is more in the media. This speculation will remain till the final announcement is made." "Neither I nor anyone else can say anything on this (CM candidate) and this will be known after the high command's announcement. Whatever decision the high command takes, it will be acceptable to all.

"The high command knows everything and the decision will be taken by them.

Everyone has hopes and aspirations, which are in public domain, and the high command is aware of it," Selja, who is a Dalit leader, asserted.

The former Union minister said all these things have to be factored in by the high command.

Claiming that the Congress is likely to get over 60 seats, she said the anti-incumbency of the BJP is palpable, as people are so highly disillusioned that they wanted the saffron party out.

"But now, the entire environment on why people are looking towards the Congress for forming the government...all that changed after Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, and that changed people's perception about the Congress and Rahul Gandhi.

"We have all worked hard on the ground and have taken Rahul Gandhi's message down to the grassroots, but it is Rahul Gandhi's yatra that changed public perception about the Congress," she said.

Selja said people were "very unhappy" with the BJP after 10 years of their government.

The poor, Dalits and other classes have again come back to the Congress and look forward to it, she claimed, adding that these factors have helped bring 36 communities in Haryana towards the party in the elections.