A day after Haryana Congress’ infighting turned violent resulting in head injuries to State party chief Ashok Tanwar, his supporters on Friday demanded ouster of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his supporters from the party.
Tanwar had on Thursday sustained injuries during a scuffle between his and Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s supporters in New Delhi and was admitted to Ram Manohar lohia hospital. The violent clash which also injured more than a dozen Congress workers had taken place during Congress’ vice president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Bhairon temple to end his month-long Kisan Yatra.
Expressing their anguish over the incident, Tanwar supporters met incharge of Haryana party affairs Kamal Nath and demanded ouster of Hooda from the party or strict action against him and his supporters.
Aimed at soothing the frayed tempers of Tanwar camp following the incident, Kamal Nath had convened a meeting with his supporters and inquired about the reasons of the clash.
“We have demanded strict action against Hooda and his supporters involved in the clash from the party. Either the party should suspend them or take any other strict action otherwise the infighting would further escalate after this violent clash,” said a party leader after the meeting.
He said that senior leader Kamal Nath has been apprized about the reasons behind the clash and he has assured strict action against those involved in the scuffle.
later, Tanwar supporters sat on dharna at Delhi’s Tilak Marg Police station demanding registration of an FIR and strict action against the culprits in the bloody clash. They also submitted a video of the clash and a list naming Hooda supporters who were involved in the brawl.
Tanwar’s condition is stated to be stable now. later on Thursday night, Tanwar was visited by Rahul Gandhi and many party leaders including Bhupinder Singh Hooda, his son Deepender Hooda, Motilal Vora, Digvijaya Singh, Kamal Nath, Janardhan Dwivedi, Asha Kumari among others.
The incident has one again brought to the fore the differences between different factions of the Haryana Congress and have further escalated party’s infighting. The faction headed by Hooda has been seeking the ouster of Tanwar as Haryana Congress chief.
Even after the bloody clash between his and Tanwar supporters, Hooda however denied infighting in the party. Talking to the mediapersons at Jind, Hooda said that there is no infighting and some people are doing all this to disturb unity in the party.
On the other hand, Capt. Ashok Yadav, who met Tanwar at the RMl hospital, said that violence is not good for the party. If someone wants to fight... go to borders to do so, said he.
Yadav, a close aid of Tanwar said that it is highly condemnable that all this happened during an event of party’s vice president Rahul Gandhi. The Congress high command should take cognizance of the incident, he added.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties are now not letting go any opportunity to attack the Congress after the violent clash between the party workers.
Reacting on the issue, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal on Friday said that factionalism has always prevailed in the Congress and whatever happened was unfortunate. If the situation in the party continues like this... they will face trouble in the future, said he.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Haryana Minister Anil Vij, said that the Congress leaders should wear helmets instead of the traditional ‘Gandhi cap’ in future.
After the fight between Hooda and Tanwar groups, wearing of helmets instead of the Gandhi cap should be made mandatory at all Congress events,” Vij tweeted on Friday.
INlD’s Haryana chief Ashok Arora while condemning the Congress said that it is really unfortunate how the Congress leaders are behaving. Instead of fighting for the cause of farmers, the Congress members are fighting with themselves, said Arora.