Without staking claim to form the government, the Indian National Lok Dal on Friday requested the governor to provide an opportunity to other political parties or groups to form the government in Haryana, saying people have not given a clear verdict to the Congress.
"As an alternative to the Congress, which has failed to get the mandate, the other parties/groups should be given a chance to form a non-Congress government," INLD president Om Parkash Chautala said in a letter to Governor Jagannath Pahadia.
By doing this, the verdict of the people against the Congress would be honoured, he added. Chautala told the governor that the state was passing through a "sad chain of incidents in which the Congress, after failing to get the mandate in its favour, was indulging in horse trading to get the support of newly-elected Independents and members of small parties."
"The Congress is throttling the people's verdict by indulging in such acts," he said in the letter.
Congress, which ended up six seats short of a simple majority in the 90-member Haryana Assembly, today met the governor and staked claim to form the government, with the support of all seven Independent Members of Legislative Assembly.
The Congress emerged as the single largest party with 40 MLAs, followed by 31 of the INLD. INLD's ally Shiromani Akali Dal got one seat. Of the remaining 18 seats, Haryana Janhit Congress-BL, a new entrant in assembly polls, got six seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party got four seats, the Bahujan Samaj Party got one and independent candidates secured seven seats.
