A day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked party veteran Sushil Kumar Shinde to probe the attack on Haryana party chief Ashok Tanwar by the supporters of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the war of words, allegations and counter-allegations continued in the faction-ridden Haryana Congress for the fifth consecutive day. Even after an appeal made by Tanwar to the party workers to stand united and not to hold protest against anyone, his supporters continued to hold protest across the state on Tuesday demanding ouster of Hooda from the party.
The divided house of Haryana Congress has seen further division over caste lines after the attack on Tanwar, a dalit leader. Protests by Tanwar supporters against powerful Jat leader Hooda continued for the fifth day and effigy of Hooda was burnt at various places in Haryana. Tanwar supporters have been alleging that it was an attack by Hooda camp on a dalit leader. They also alleged that the state had seen atrocities against dalits during Hooda’s tenure as CM and now, a dalit leader has been targeted by him.
On October 6, Tanwar had sustained injuries during a violent clash between his and Hooda’s supporters in New Delhi. The clash which also injured more than a dozen Congress workers had taken place during Congress’ vice president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Bhairon temple to end his month-long Kisan Yatra.
As per the reports, Haryana party chief supporters held protests at Kaithal, Rewari, Fathehabad, Kurukshetra, Faridabad on Tuesday.
The two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has however termed the ongoing situation as party’s internal matter and workers’ clash. Hooda while talking to the mediapersons on Tuesday said, “Such incidents happen all the time… It was party workers’ clash and nothing big.”
Referring to the meeting with party’s vice president Rahul Gandhi a day before, Hooda said that I had sought time to meet him and urge him to look into the issue so that truth can come out. Whatever happened was unfortunate and action should be taken against those who did wrong, he said.
Hooda added that during his meeting with Rahul Gandhi, discussions were held on political scenario in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi was also apprised about the two years rule of BJP led Haryana Government, which has failed on all fronts, said the senior Congress leader. Expressing concern over the infighting in state party unit, Haryana Congress MlA Karan Singh Dalal said that the situation is not fine in the party. With the ongoing protests, allegations, baseless statements, situation does not seem to improve in the state Congress, said he.
