Intense factionalism within the Haryana unit of the Congress party over the distribution of tickets has led to a delay in announcing the names of its candidates for nine out of the 10 Lok Sabha seats that it will be contesting in the State. This has also triggered restlessness among the party’s leaders, workers, supporters and their alliance partner.  

In Haryana, Congress is fighting the polls in alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), with the former contesting from nine of 10 seats, while AAP has already named former Rajya Sabha member and state party chief Sushil Gupta from Kurukshetra.

BJP took the early initiative and announced its list of candidates on all the 10 Lok Sabha seats of the State long time back. Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) has so far declared its list of candidates on five Lok Sabha seats while Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has already named its senior party leader Abhay Singh Chautala from Kurukshetra parliamentary seat. Both the parties INLD and JJP have decided to field their candidates on all the 10 seats of the Lok Sabha election in the State.

It is understood that the three-member Central Election Committee formed by the Party Central leadership has failed to resolve the differences that have emerged over the choice of candidates on some Lok Sabha seats.  However, a consensus has almost been achieved on three Parliamentary seats that include Kumari Selja from Sirsa, Deepender Hooda from Rohtak and Varun Chaudhary from Ambala. If these names are finalised, Kumari Selja will be contesting against BJP’s Ashok Tanwar, Deepender Hooda against BJP’s Arvind Sharma while Varun Chaudhary will take on BJP’s former MP Late Ratan Lal Kataria’s wife Banto Kataria.

Congress’ poll strategists are having a tough time selecting candidates for Sonepat, Gurugram, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Faridabad, Hisar and Karnal Lok Sabha seats.  The two factions — one led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Party’s state unit president Uday Bhan and the other comprising AICC general secretary Kumari Selja, Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala and former State Assembly Speaker Kiran Choudhry (euphemistically dubbed SRK) — have locked horns over six seats out of the nine seats.

The committee could not manage to get a consensus on the candidates’ names despite multiple rounds of meetings that were attended by these leaders. The faction, led by Hooda, has sought to dominate the party’s choice of candidates. The six seats on which the party has not been able to reach a consensus include Sonepat, Gurugram, Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Faridabad, Hisar and Karnal.

In Bhiwani-Mahendragarh for example, the State unit wants to field Rao Dhan Singh, a Yadav leader, in place of former Lok Sabha member Shruti Choudhry, who is the daughter of former Haryana minister and five-term MLA Kiran Choudhry. Kiran, who has been a Cabinet Minister in Haryana twice, is known to be an open critic and rival of Bhupinder Singh Hooda. It is alleged that the Hooda camp wants to field Rao Dhan Singh even though seven out of nine Assembly segments under Bhiwani Lok Sabha seats are dominated by Jats, the community Choudhry belongs to.

In Hisar Lok Sabha constituency, from where Hooda loyalist and veteran leader Jai Prakash has thrown his hat in the ring while SRK faction is pitching for BJP turncoat Brijendra Singh, who was the sitting MP. Party workers, however, are not in favour of Brijendra citing that he has recently quit BJP and joined Congress.

In Gurugram, former minister Capt Ajay Yadav and actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar are among the front runners. Yadav had lost to BJP’s Rao Inderjit Singh in 2019. BJP has again fielded Rao Inderjit. Captain Ajay Yadav is being backed by several senior leaders of the non-Hooda camp but Hooda wants to field film actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar from the seat.

In Faridabad, while Hooda camp is pitching for former state minister Karan Dalal, the rival camp wants former minister Mahendra Pratap Singh or his son Vijay Pratap to be declared as candidate. BJP has repeated party veteran Krishan Pal Gurjar for a third time, after he won consecutively in 2014 and 2019.

In Sonipat, there are three aspirants — former Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Sharma or his son Chankya Pandit being propped by Hooda faction (if either of the two fail to get a ticket from Karnal), and Satpal Brahmchari who has SRFK faction’s backing. Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit's son Sandeep Dikshit is the dark horse from Sonipat. He has been a two-time MP from East Delhi and is looking for a seat in NCR region this time round. 

In Karnal too, Chanakya Pandit is among the front runners. Hooda camp is pitching for him because Chanakya’s grandfather Chiranji Lal had represented Karnal four times. The other faction wants Virendra Rathore. BJP has fielded former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar from Karnal.

Talking to reporters, Haryana’s party affairs in-charge for Congress Deepak Babaria said that the final decision regarding the list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will be taken by the Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. Party will soon declare its candidates for Haryana,” he added. He further said that the party follows democratic norms while selecting the candidates and everybody has a right to voice their concerns. Everybody has been heard and the final decision will be announced soon, Babaria added.

In Haryana, which goes to the polls on May 25, several leaders of the Congress party have expressed disappointment over the delay, saying it would come in the way of poll preparedness.

Recently, former Haryana Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar hit out at Congress, saying the party is finding it difficult to name candidates for nine parliamentary seats in the state. Comparing the poll preparedness of both parties, Khattar said that while BJP had begun reaching out to voters in March itself, Congress is yet to come up with names of nominees. This shows no one is ready to contest on a Congress ticket, he added.