Ahead of poll results, senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a frontrunner for the chief minister's post on Monday traveled to Delhi to meet with party leadership. Hooda reiterated that he is “neither tired nor retired” and said the final decision of the high command on the chief ministerial pick will be acceptable to all.

Talking to reporters in New Delhi, the former Chief Minister said that Congress is going to form the government with a huge majority in the state.  He said exit polls have come after the voting, but the public had already made up its mind and we understood the sentiment of the people. “The public's mood was also clear from the results of the Lok Sabha elections, because the vote percentage of Congress increased in all the Lok Sabhas and BJP suffered a setback. The same situation will be seen in the assembly elections as well,” he stated.

Responding to the questions, Hooda said BJP did not have any issue in the elections, because it did not do any work while being in power for 10 years. “The Congress was asking for votes by showing the work of its 10-year old tenure. Haryana was number one on every scale of per capita income, per capita investment, employment, respect for sportspersons and development during the Congress tenure. BJP made it number one in unemployment, crime, drugs, inflation and atrocities,” he said.

“From increasing the rates of petrol and diesel, to increasing the cost of farming, BJP has increased the cost of everything manifold. During the Congress tenure, fuel was very cheap and all agricultural equipment including fertilizers, seeds, medicines were tax free, but BJP imposed tax on everything and doubled the VAT,” he said.

Hooda also talked about the good governance provided under his leadership from 2005-14 and alleged that law and order had once again collapsed under the BJP rule, as was the case before he took over as CM in 2005. Responding to a question of who would be the party’s chief ministerial pick, Hooda said, “The opinion of MLAs will be sought, and then the high command (of the party) will take the final decision. The decision taken will be acceptable to all...The Congress has performed well in all seats.” “I again say it, neither am I tired nor retired,” the 77-year-old leader said.  He claimed that he had been proven right that the contest is between the Congress and the BJP in Haryana and people will not vote for “vote cutters”.