INLD Revives 2013 CLU Bribery Allegations Against New Haryana Congress Chief Rao Narender Singh; He Calls Video ‘Fabricated’
As Congress shuffles leadership amid internal dissent, opposition INLD recirculates purported recording claiming Singh sought up to ₹50 crore in land-use conversion graft, prompting denials and fresh legal scrutiny calls.
Chandigarh – September 30, 2025
The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has reignited a decade-old corruption controversy targeting Rao Narender Singh, Haryana Congress’s freshly appointed state president, by releasing a compact disc (CD) that allegedly captures him soliciting massive bribes for approving land-use changes during his ministerial tenure. The move, announced during a press conference in Chandigarh on Tuesday, comes just a day after Congress elevated the 61-year-old Ahir leader to the top party post, replacing Udai Bhan and pairing him with former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as Leader of the Opposition. Singh swiftly dismissed the claims as a “malicious BJP-orchestrated smear,” asserting the footage is doctored and backed by forensic evidence.
INLD state president Ram Pal Majra, flanked by party workers, presented the CD as purported evidence from 2013, when Singh served as health minister in the Hooda-led Congress government. In the recording, an unidentified voice—claimed by INLD to be Singh’s—discusses facilitating a 30-acre land conversion for a colony project, referencing offers ranging from ₹30 crore to ₹50 crore. The transcript, shared by Majra, includes exchanges about payment timelines, objection clearances, and the involvement of intermediaries, with the minister figure cautioning on the need for a “reliable” handler to avoid complications. “This was an industry under the previous regime,” Majra alleged, linking the scandal to broader graft in change-of-land-use (CLU) approvals. He further contended that voice sample tests during prior probes corroborated the audio, questioning Congress’s decision to install Singh despite unresolved judicial proceedings.
Majra also tied the episode to high-profile beneficiaries, noting that Sky Light Hospitality—a firm owned by Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi—received similar CLU clearances. “Why this sudden organizational shift now?” he probed, echoing criticisms from within Congress, including from former minister Captain Ajay Yadav, who has flagged Singh’s selection as contrary to Rahul Gandhi’s push for clean, youthful leadership. Majra suggested alternatives like Kumari Selja or Randeep Surjewala, accusing the party of recycling “tainted” figures under the guise of renewal.
In a pointed rebuttal hours after the INLD event, Singh labeled the CD a “recycled forgery” designed to derail his new role. Speaking to reporters in Rohtak, he emphasized that a forensic analysis commissioned during earlier investigations confirmed the video’s manipulation, with no substantive proof ever tendered by accusers. “They handed over a blank USB drive to the Lokayukta to dodge scrutiny— the original would expose their bluff,” Singh stated, vowing to pursue defamation charges. He accused INLD of acting as a BJP proxy amid the saffron party’s efforts to consolidate power post its 2024 assembly win, adding that the Lokayukta inquiry had cleared him of wrongdoing.
### Roots in the 2013 CLU Probe: A Trail of Arrests and Court Directives
The allegations trace back to August 2013, when INLD first publicized the CD amid a media blitz on alleged CLU corruption in the Hooda administration. The purported sting implicated several Congress figures, including Singh, MLAs Jarnail Singh, Naresh Selwal, and Ram Niwas Ghodela, in demanding up to ₹5 crore per plot for institutional conversions. A key figure in the narrative was Hisar-based broker Bhuvnesh Ilawadi, arrested by the Vigilance Bureau in 2016 for allegedly brokering these deals. The scandal prompted a Lokayukta probe, followed by FIRs in 2015 and a Punjab and Haryana High Court-mandated Special Investigation Team (SIT) to deepen the inquiry.
While no convictions have emerged from the case, it has cast a long shadow over Haryana’s real estate politics, with CLU approvals often scrutinized for favoritism toward industrialists and politicians. Singh, who represented Narnaul as MLA from 2005-2014, has maintained his innocence, pointing to the absence of chargesheets against him despite years of litigation.
Timing Fuels Political Crossfire
Singh’s appointment on September 29—11 months after Congress’s assembly poll loss—has already stirred intra-party friction, with Yadav’s dissent amplifying INLD’s salvo. Analysts view the INLD resurgence as tactical opportunism, leveraging the scandal to peel away OBC voters in southern Haryana, where Singh’s Ahir community holds sway. Congress, however, frames the duo of Hooda and Singh as a “unified front” to challenge Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s BJP ahead of 2026 local body elections.
As the CD circulates online, the High Court may revisit the dormant probe, with INLD urging an expedited hearing. For Singh, the episode tests his nascent presidency: Can he navigate the legal haze to rally a fractured party, or will it embolden rivals? In Haryana’s cutthroat arena, old tapes die hard.
