It’s just Congress vs BJP, rest of the parties are ‘vote-cutters’: Bhupinder Hooda

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday said that the contest this time is only between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress while the rest of the parties fielding their candidates are just “vote-cutters”.

This comes a day after Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) general secretary Abhay Chautala accused Hooda of fielding a “dummy candidate” against former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar to “help the BJP”.

Reacting to this, Hooda, while accompanying the party’s Karnal candidate Divyanshu Budhiraja for the filing of nomination papers, said, “People of Haryana are aware who voted for whom during the elections of the President of India. Here, there is a direct contest between the Congress and the BJP, while rest of the parties are merely vote-cutters.”

He further said, “Seeing the current scenario, I can say that the people of Haryana have decided to vote for the Congress. We will do a clean sweep this time and form a government in the state soon.”