The infighting in Haryana Congress again came out in the open on Tuesday at a meeting convened by party general secretary-incharge of the state, Ghulam Nabi Azad in New Delhi.
Following Congress’ resounding defeat in Lok Sabha polls in Haryana, prominent leaders of the state party unit engaged in heated arguments at the meeting convened to analyze the reasons of defeat and chalk out a plan for Haryana Assembly elections to be held later this year.
Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state party chief Ashok Tanwar, CLP leader Kiran Choudhry, other party candidates on 10 Lok Sabha seats, current MLAs and senior party leaders were present at the meeting held on Tuesday evening.
Sources said that Bhupinder Singh Hooda, along with his loyalists MLAs blamed weak organizational structure of Congress in Haryana and demanded change in state leadership ahead of Assembly elections. Following this, leaders belonging to the two camps of Hooda and Tanwar engaged in heated arguments and blamed each other for weakening the party in the state.
During the meeting, the leaders owing allegiance to Hooda claim blamed Tanwar for not making appointments at booth level and not informing the state MLAs about various party events. They also mentioned that the party has lost last three polls – Lok Sabha and assembly elections in 2014 and the recent general elections – under Tanwar’s leadership, said sources.
Upset with the allegations, Tanwar accused Hooda camp for weakening the state party unit, sources added.
At the meeting, Azad directed the party leaders to strengthen the Congress at booth-level in Haryana.
Azad will now submit a report to the party high command after taking feedback from the party leaders on the reason of defeat on all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.
The factionalism and demand of change in party state leadership is not new in Haryana Congress. Senior leaders and 12 Haryana Congress MLAs, owing allegiance to Hooda have been raising this demand since past four years.
The Congress is reportedly deliberating major changes in the Haryana unit and may also appoint a new state party leader.
Notably, Congress had fielded its heavyweight leaders for Lok Sabha polls including former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, his son and three-time MP Deepender Hooda, state party chief Ashok Tanwar, a four-time MP and former Union Minister Kumari Selja, a six-time MLA Capt Ajay Yadav and three-time MP and one-time MLA Avtar Bhadana among others. However, all of them had lost with huge margins, a few to candidates who were fighting their maiden elections.
Even as the party’s vote share increased to 28.42 percent (3604106) this time from 22.9 percent in 2014 polls in Haryana, the Congress failed to register a victory even on a single seat.
On a question of resignation following party’s defeat in Haryana, Tanwar had last week said that the defeat is the collective responsibility of party leaders and he will not run away from my duty and focus on State Assembly polls.