After the crushing defeat in the assembly elections of five states, a new crisis seems to be rising towards the Congress. Due to the tension taking shape between two big leaders of Haryana, factionalism has started within the party. It is reported that this political battle is going on in the state between the state Congress Committee chief Kumari Selja and former Chief Minister and current Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Here, the party leadership is also constantly trying to bring about a reconciliation between the two leaders.
According to the Indian Express report, party insiders say that the state unit is divided into two camps – Shailja and Hooda. Although, both the leaders have not spoken openly against each other so far, but mutual tension is evident. Because the two leaders have not shared the stage together in recent months. On the one hand, Hooda is visiting the districts as part of the ‘Opposition Aapke Saamne’ campaign. At the same time, Selja stayed away from the campaign and is looking after other organization level issues of the party.
Whose edge is heavy?
Hooda is believed to have the support of more than two dozen of the party’s 31 MLAs. Apart from this, many former MPs and ministers are also counted as loyalists of Hooda. Whereas, Selja is considered close to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
The report quoted party functionaries as saying that Hooda is trying to replace Shailja with his son Deepender Hooda as the Haryana Congress chief. However, many leaders like Randeep Surjewala, Kiran Choudhary and Kuldeep Bishnoi are against the decision. The special thing is that before the 2019 elections, Hooda camp was successful in removing former Congress state chief Ashok Tanwar from the post. Tanwar left the party shortly after.
Rahul is handling the deteriorating condition!
On March 25, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held a meeting with the leaders of Haryana to get reconciliation in the capital Delhi. According to the report, sources said that a heated argument took place during the meeting as Hooda supporters were pushing for a change of leadership in the state. Dipendra had reportedly appealed to Rahul to conduct a survey to find out who is more popular and has more support among his father or Shailja.
It is reported that Rahul told the leaders of Haryana that they will have to accept the matter of ‘collective responsibility’ and fight the elections as ‘collective leadership’. Haryana in-charge of the party, Vivek Bansal, admitted that ‘factionalism is a big challenge before the party leadership’. Talking to the newspaper, Bansal said, ‘Absolutely, it is a big challenge, because of which the meeting was called by the top boss.’ “But, you see quickly that this issue has been resolved,” he said. I am sure that I will resolve this issue soon in future.
Here, Shailja has denied any controversy in the party. Hooda said, “There may be differences among party leaders, but there is no difference of opinion.” Shailja told the newspaper, ‘Rahul ji asked everyone to talk openly. Everyone shared their concerns and there was discussion regarding the political situation not only in Haryana but also in other states.
He further said, ‘My concern is about the organization, which I put forward. Many others talked about the party’s performance in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and even at the national level. So Rahul ji listened to everyone and said that everyone should come together and come out on the streets and reach out to the people. He asked all the people to stay united so that what happened in Punjab can be avoided.