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Haryana Congress Politics: Assembly elections are going to be held in Haryana in October, but before that factionalism and discord within the Congress have come to the surface. Former Union Minister and Sirsa MP Kumari Selja has announced to start the ‘Congress Sandesh Yatra’ from Ambala on Saturday (July 27). Her journey will focus on strengthening the party in urban areas before the assembly elections. The big thing is that this journey is different from the ‘Haryana Mange Hisaab Yatra’ being taken out by former Chief Minister of the state Bhupinder Singh Hooda and state president Uday Bhan.
The poster of her visit posted by Kumari Selja on social media is further exposing the internal fight within the party because on that poster there is neither a picture of Bhupinder Singh Hooda nor of state president Udaybhan or state in-charge Deepak Babaria. Selja’s poster has a big picture of leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi along with party president Mallikarjun Kharge, while at the top there are pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and party general secretary KC Venugopal along with the party’s election symbol.
There are three big leaders in Kumari Selja’s group, a glimpse of this can also be seen in this poster. Apart from Selja, Randeep Singh Surjewala and former Union Minister Birendra Singh’s picture has been placed at the bottom of the poster. This yatra will start from Agrasen Chowk in Ambala at 4.30 pm on 27th July, which will reach Hisar the next day. On 28th July, Selja will address a public meeting in Barwala, Hisar.
Let us tell you that during the Lok Sabha elections too, Shailja had taken out a Sandesh Yatra. At that time, apart from Surjewala, Kiran Chaudhary was also with her, who has joined the BJP after being angry at not giving ticket to Boti. Shailja had then covered about 7-8 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state but she had left out Rohtak and Sonipat. Shailja did not want to contest the Lok Sabha elections then but the party fielded her from Sirsa, from where she has won.
Coming from the Dalit community, Shailaja does not get along with former Chief Minister Hooda. Shailaja also sees herself as a contender for the post of Chief Minister of the state. This is the reason why there has been frequent tussle between the two leaders. In 2019 too, the party contested the assembly elections under the leadership of Hooda, then the party had to be content with 31 seats in the 90-member assembly. The ruling BJP won 40 seats, which was supported by the JJP with 10 seats and Manohar Lal Khattar was able to form the government for the second time. Then seven independents also registered victory.