Haryana Assembly Election 2024:The filing of nominations for the assembly elections in Haryana has started from Thursday but no list of Congress has been announced yet. After the initiative of alliance with Aam Aadmi Party in the state, tremendous discontent has emerged in the Congress. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had insisted on alliance with AAP in Haryana, after which a round of discussions is going on between the leaders of both the parties.
The most powerful Congress leader in the state, Bhupendra Singh Hooda’s camp is quite upset on the issue of alliance with AAP in Haryana. Hooda has been advocating contesting elections on his own in the state. Apart from Hooda, many other senior leaders of Haryana Congress are also not in favour of alliance with AAP. There is a lot of restlessness in the party over the news of tickets being cut for many leaders associated with the Hooda camp. This tussle may increase further after the Congress list is released.
Hooda and the state Congress president left the meeting
During the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana, there was an alliance between Congress and Aam Aadmi Party. Congress contested on nine seats and won five seats while AAP had to face defeat on the Kurukshetra seat. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has now insisted on an alliance with Aam Aadmi Party during the assembly elections as well, but there does not seem to be a consensus in the party on seat sharing with AAP.
Former Haryana Chief Minister and Congress Legislature Party leader Bhupendra Singh Hooda seems to be quite angry with this initiative. His anger has increased to such an extent that during a meeting organized in connection with the alliance with AAP, he left the meeting. When the proposal of seat sharing with AAP was put forward, along with Hooda, state Congress president Udaybhan Singh also left the meeting. From this, the anger of the Congress leaders of Haryana can be clearly understood.
Strong opposition to alliance with AAP and SP
According to experts, the leaders associated with Hooda camp are strong contenders for the tickets on the seats demanded by AAP. These seats include Pehowa, Kalayat and Jind. These leaders close to Hooda have raised the flag of protest. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is advocating for an alliance in Haryana to give the message of unity of the constituent parties of the opposition alliance India, but this is being strongly opposed within the party itself.
Rahul Gandhi also wants to give some seats to Samajwadi Party in Haryana but Hooda and his close leaders are not ready for this. Their argument is that the wind is blowing in favour of Congress in Haryana and the party is fully capable of forming the government on its own.
The state in-charge also failed to convince Hooda
Deepak Babaria, the state in-charge of Congress in Haryana, has tried to convince Hooda and state Congress president Udaybhan Singh, but both the leaders still do not seem ready to listen to the party high command. Both the leaders have strongly objected to the high command’s proposal of alliance with AAP and SP. Due to this tussle, the party has not been able to release a single list in Haryana yet, whereas the names of 67 candidates have been announced by the BJP.
Indications of ticket cancellation of many Hooda supporters
Earlier it was being said that Congress has also finalized its first list and the names of the candidates will be announced soon but later the list was not announced due to some names. According to informed sources, the MLAs whose candidature has been stopped include Dharam Singh Chhokar from Samalkha, Surendra Panwar from Sonipat and Rao Dan Singh from Mahendragarh.
The interesting thing is that all of them are considered close to Hooda. The Enforcement Directorate is investigating all of them. Hooda is also said to be angry over the news of tickets of his supporters being cut.
There may be a friendly contest on some seats
There are 90 assembly seats in Haryana and at present Congress has 28 MLAs. This time Congress wants to show its strength in the Haryana assembly elections. AAP has demanded 10 seats in the state but Congress is not ready to give more than 4-5 seats. There is a fierce battle going on in the party regarding these seats too.
In such a situation, it is believed that if the Congress high command takes the final decision of the alliance, then there can be a friendly contest between Congress and AAP on some seats. In Jammu and Kashmir too, Congress has formed an alliance with the National Conference but on some seats there is a friendly contest between the two parties. The same formula can be applied in Haryana as well. Everyone’s eyes are also on the reaction of the Hooda camp on the pressure of the alliance from the high command.
