looking for revival of the party in Haryana ahead of the 2019 parliamentary and Assembly polls, the State Congress wants party president Rahul Gandhi to hold a mega rally to boost the morale of the cadre.
Haryana Congress unit has invited national president to the State to hold a mega event to kick off party’s campaign for next year’s elections.
The Congress’ move comes close on the heels of BJP’s announcement of launching a massive campaign during its party chief Amit Shah’s visit to Haryana’s Jind on February 15. Shah will sound the party’s poll bugle for the 2019 during a motorcycle rally, in which thousands of party workers would come from across the State on February 15.
The faction-ridden Haryana Congress, on the other hand is also vigorously working to make a comeback in the State. The State party unit which is divided in two dominant groups of State party chief Ashok Tanwar and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is holding a series of programmes to reach out to the people of Haryana.
To strengthen the party ahead of 2019 polls and formulate polls strategy to take on the BJP led Haryana Government, the Congress is holding manthan shivirs in the State. While the first three-day manthan-shivir was held in Gurugram from January 15 to 17, the second shivir is scheduled to begin in Panchkula from February 1.
The third manthan-shivir will be held in Hisar following which an event will be held in Rohtak on February 12, where the Congress will announce its mass outreach programmes in view of next year’s polls in Haryana.
“The party State unit has invited Rahul Gandhi to visit the state to boost the morale of workers and also set the ground for next year’s polls. We are hopeful that a mega party event will be held in the State, probably after February,” said Ashok Tanwar, Haryana Congress chief while talking to The Pioneer.
Talking about party’s manthan-shivirs, Tanwar said that second shivir will be held in Panchkula for two days starting February 1 and next shivir will be held in Hisar. An invitation has been sent to all the party leaders, office bearers of seven districts to attend Panchkula’s shivir, said he.
The party’s preparations for ‘Mission 2019’ has however begun on a dull note with all party MlAs, lone MP and other senior leaders giving a miss to the first manthan-shivir held in Gurugram.
The MlAs, owing allegiance to former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, have already announced to skip party’s manthan- shivirs and are participating in events held by Hooda.
During the manthan-shivirs, the Congress is holding discussions on key issues in the state including law and order situation, farmer’s woes, water-sharing problem, unfulfilled poll promises of BJP and chalking out a strategy to corner the ruling BJP on these issues during the poll campaigns.
The two-time former CM Hooda, along with his 12 loyalists MlAs is set to begin a rath yatra in February to connect with the people of all 90 constituencies while Ashok Tanwar has kicked off a cycle yatra in the state.
Notably, Tanwar and Hooda have been at loggerheads 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 after Kuldeep Bishnoi’s HJC’s merger in the party last year.
The feud between Hooda and Tanwar factions had further escalated after the party workers clash in New Delhi in 2016 where Tanwar had sustained injuries.
Since then, the Hooda faction has been trying to dislodge Tanwar from his post. The demand of change in state party leadership has, however, been ignored by the Central party leadership, which has asked Tanwar to continue as party’s state unit president.