Congress will not contest the upcoming panchayat elections in Haryana on its symbol, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday said after the state legislature party meeting here.
The panchayat polls are scheduled to be held in the state in September.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Hooda, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Assembly. State Congress chief Udai Bhan was also present in the meeting. Hooda said the Congress MLAs held a detailed discussion over the Panchayat elections. The Congress will not contest the panchayat elections on party symbol, he said. The Congress leader also alleged that the government deliberately postponed the panchayat elections.
''Due to this, the development of villages came to a standstill and there was a lot of corruption in the absence of panchayat representatives,'' he said.
''The Congress demands that rights of backward classes be ensured in the elections and they should be given the benefit of reservation,'' he said.
Hooda said that the party's upcoming programmes have also been finalised in the meeting. ''It has been decided to postpone the ‘Vipaksh Aapke Samaksh' program to be held in Yamunanagar on August 28. It will now be on September 11 as the Congress party is going to hold a 'Halla Bol' rally against inflation in Delhi on August 28. Haryana will have a strong participation in this,'' he said.