Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda looks the same as he did before the polls, but he has actually grown much taller, in stature.
Winning nine out of ten Lok Sabha seats has done a great deal to his image in the party, from within which he had faced a great deal of resistance in the run up to the elections.
Senior leader and Finance Minister Birender Singh had blamed Hooda for the party denying him a ticket to contest from Sonepat, while another minister A C Choudhry revolted against him for denial of ticket to any Punjabi from the state.
Besides, there was the assault from the opposition INLD-BJP combine and the Haryana Janhit Congress. But Hooda has emerged unscathed from this poll test with 41.73 per cent vote share to the Congress. A confident Hooda has said the party would repeat this performance in the assembly elections due early next year. The Congress had managed to come out triumphant in 59 of the 90 Assembly segments in the just-concluded LS polls.
Hooda was hand-picked by the Congress high command to lead the state and made Chief Minister in March 2005 when he was still representing Rohtak in the Lok Sabha.
"The massive mandate in the Lok Sabha polls has increased my responsibilities manifold," the Chief Minister said after the elections results were declared.