Ahead of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s “Jan Aakrosh” rally scheduled for April 29 in the national capital, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday put up a show of strength at his New Delhi’s residence, chairing a meeting of sitting MlAs and senior party leaders and workers from the state.
The meeting called for reviewing the arrangements for the upcoming rally at Delhi was attended by his 12 loyalists MlAs and also, MlA Kuldeep Bishnoi, who had merged his HJC with the Congress in 2016.
While Bishnoi has so far maintained distance from attending the meetings of factions heading by Hooda and another by Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar in the state, his attendance at Hooda’s Wednesday meeting have surprised many.
Apart from 13 party MlAs, senior party leaders and workers from across the state attended the meeting. The party’s lone MP Deependra Singh Hooda also attended the meeting.
With Haryana’s close proximity to Delhi, the faction-ridden Haryana Congress party has been given the responsibility to ensure huge gathering for the Delhi rally.
Hooda’s arch rival, Ashok Tanwar has been holding district wise meetings to mobilize party workers for the rally.
like previous party rallies, Ashok Tanwar and Hooda are likely to utilize the platform for a show of strength, even as they have been directed by the central party leadership to ensure that their supporters refrain from sloganeering and wearing turbans of a particular colour in favour of any particular faction.
In previous party rallies, both Tanwar and Hooda have engaged in organising separate shows of strength. While Hooda supporters were seen wearing pink turbans, Tanwar supporters were seen in an attire of different colour at party’s rallies.
This time also, the supporters of Hooda, Tanwar and other party leaders have planned to go for sloganeering in favour of their leaders to make their presence felt at Rahul Gandhi’s rally.
During the party meeting on Wednesday, Bhupinder Singh Hooda has called upon all leaders, workers and supporters to come out in large numbers to make the Jan Akrosh Rally at the Ramlila Maidan a historic success.
He said every worker of the Congress in Haryana would go all out to make the rally a grand and historic success.
Hooda said while the weather is not conducive to holding a massive rally, Congress President Rahul Gandhi has called for a rally considering the anti-people and devastating policies of the BJP government.
“Rahul Gandhi has called for the rally to highlight the problems and miseries of the people, destruction of our constitutional institutions and give a voice to the desperation of the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, women, minorities, farmers, the working class and the youth who are struggling to find employment,” the two-time former Haryana Chief Minister said.
Stating that since this is the first major rally after Rahul Gandhi took over as the Congress President, Hooda said we will go all out to make it a grand success.
He called on all workers and leaders to make the success of a rally as a matter of personal pride and larger the gathering, the stronger the Congress party would emerge.
Talking about Haryana, Hooda said the present BJP government has set new records in incompetence and corruption. The government has gone to unprecedented lows by indulging in scam in the distribution of free medicines and putting a rate list and auctioning jobs, he said.
There is despair everywhere and with your support, we will start the next leg of the Jankranti Yatra in the state after the Jan Akrosh Rally, he added.
For the success of Delhi’s rally, Ashok Tanwar has been organizing meetings at district level for mobilizing party cadre. Similarly, senior party leaders, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kiran Choudhry, Kumari Selja are also addressing party meetings to ensure large gathering at the rally.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi is likely to make organisational changes in Haryana after April 29 rally. The loyalists of Hooda had been demanded ouster of Ashok Tanwar since the state assembly polls in 2014.
Notably, in October 2016, the supporters of Tanwar and Hooda had even clashed injuring more than a dozen Congress workers during Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Bhairon temple to end his month-long Kisan Yatra. Tanwar had himself sustained head injuries during the clash.
Tanwar and two-time Chief Minister Hooda had been engaged in a tug-of-war since 2014 Haryana assembly polls in which the party was reduced to 15 seats, even losing the status of the main opposition party to the Indian National lok Dal (INlD) in the state assembly.
The number of Congress MlAs increased to 17 in Haryana after HJC merger in 2016.