Amid the escalated infighting in Haryana Congress party after attack on its chief Ashok Tanwar in New Delhi, 12 Haryana Congress MlAs, owing allegiance to former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday met former Union Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and demanded removal of Tanwar from the top post to end the factionalism in the state party unit.
Summoned by Shinde to record their versions on the party workers clash on the day Rahul Gandhi’s Uttar Pradesh Yatra culminated in the capital, the State Congress MlAs showed support to Hooda and complained against Tanwar’s working style.
The State MlAs is learnt to have apprized Shinde about the factionalism in the party since Tanwar took over as party chief in Haryana. Demanding a corrective action to end party’s infighting, the MlAs, who are Hooda’s loyalist also termed allegations against him by Tanwar supporters as baseless.
After the meeting, MlA Karan Singh Dalal while talking to the media said that clinical surgery of Congress is going on. Something has to be done considering the increasing infighting, he added.
MlA Geeta Bhukkal said that we have put forth our views on the incident. If required party chief should be changed for strengthening the party in the state, she said.
The party high command had recently entrusted Shinde with the inquiry into the assault on Tanwar on October 6 in New Delhi. Tanwar had received head and spine injuries during the incident.
After the incident, Tanwar had blamed supporters of Hooda for the attack, naming Hooda’s PSO in his complaint. A dalit leader, Tanwar had also alleged that it was a planned conspiracy to kill him.
Few days back, dalit MlAs from the Congress Geeta Bhukkal, Udai Bhan, Jaibir Balmiki and Shakuntala Khatak, and senior Dalit leader Sudhir Chaudhary had hit back at Tanwar alleging that “anti-social” elements are trying to defame the party by giving the incident a casteist colour.
Meanwhile, MlAs Kuldeep Bishnoi and his wife Renuka Bishnoi, who had merged HJC with Congress also met Shinde separately to put forth their version on the violent clash.