To put up a united face in Haryana and reach out to the voters, the faction-ridden Congress State party unit is all set to kick start its election campaign with a “bus yatra” from March 26.
Aiming to halt the BJP’s juggernaut in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Haryana Congress’ bus yatra will begin from Faridabad on March 26 with all senior party leaders travelling in a bus together for electioneering.
The coordination committee of Haryana Congress which met under the former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday in New Delhi decided to undertake the five-day bus yatra which will begin from Faridabad and conclude at Jhajjar, covering major parts of the state.
The decision came a day after Congress general secretary in-charge of party affairs in Haryana, Ghulab Nabi Azad had announced to launch a bus yatra to bring all its warring state leaders together in view of Lok Sabha polls.
Such bus yatras have earlier been conducted in states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to quell the infighting in the State party units.
Azad was also present during the 15-member coordination committee meeting headed by Hooda. All committee members except MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi was present in the first meeting of the committee, announced by the party high command a day before.
Haryana party chief Ashok Tanwar, CLP leader Kiran Choudhry, MLA Randeep Surjewala, Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja, MP Deepender Singh Hooda, MLA Kuldeep Sharma, MLA Jaivir Singh Balmiki, former MP Navin Jindal, former Minister Ajay Singh Yadav among others are its members.
While the party has planned to put a united face in the bus yatra, it remains to be seen whether all these Congress leaders will travel together during the campaign.
It is no secret that Ashok Tanwar, a dalit leader, and Hooda, an upper caste Jat, do not see eye to eye on most matters and have been at loggerheads since 2014 polls. Apart from the two factions headed by Tanwar and Hooda, senior party leaders including Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Kiran Choudhry also head other factions within the party.
The coordination committee meeting has also decided to convene a meeting of state party leaders and workers on March 23 in New Delhi.
Ghulam Nabi Azad was present in the meeting for a brief period on Tuesday and asked the State party leaders to forget their differences and work together for the party’s victory in Lok Sabha polls.
As per the plan chalked out by the Congress, the bus yatra (roadshow) will begin on March 26 from Faridabad and will cover Palwal, Mewat, Gurugram, Rewari and Mahendragarh on the first day.
All members of coordination committee have been directed to be present during the Congress roadshow for five days. The night halts will be at Mahendragarh, Sirsa, Kaithal and Karnal.
After the conclusion of the bus yatra, all senior leaders will begin conducting their election programmes in 10 parliamentary constituencies of Haryana.
The voting to 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana is scheduled to be held on May 12.
“The coordination committee in its first meeting has finalized the plan for carrying out a bus yatra in the state. All senior leaders will be present during the five days yatra starting on March 26,” said Kuldeep Sharma, a member of coordination committee while talking to The Pioneer.
Sharma, who is a former Haryana Assembly Speaker and Ganaur MLA said that it has also been decided to convene a meeting of all former MLAs and MPs, current MP and MLAs, ticket aspirants, party-office bearers and other party leaders on March 23 in AICC headquarters, New Delhi.
They will be apprised about party’s election strategy, he added.
Notably, the Congress could retain only one Lok Sabha seat out of 10 in Lok Sabha polls 2014. In assembly polls held later that year, the party was reduced to 15 seats only. The number of Congress MLAs had later increased to 17 after Kuldeep Bishnoi’s HJC’s merger in the party in 2016.
This time, three-time Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda, son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and former MP Shruti Choudhry, daughter of CLP leader Kiran Choudhry, are likely to bag Congress nominations from Rohtak and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh respectively. Among other contenders, Ashok Tanwar is frontrunner for Sirsa seat, Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja for Ambala, MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi for Hisar sear, Capt. Ajay Yadav for Gurugram, former MP Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra.