Factionalism is raging in the Haryana Congress unit with MLAs loyal to former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda intensifying their campaign to get the current state party chief Kumari Selja replaced with the former.
Five MLAs, who are Hooda loyalists, on Monday met party general secretary KC Venugopal in New Delhi and demanded that Hooda, who is currently Leader of Opposition in Haryana, be given the command of the party in the state.
They also demanded that Hooda and all MLAs should be consulted before finalizing the list of appointments at district and block level in the state for strengthening the party's organisational structure in Haryana.
Last week, a total of 19 MLAs, all loyalists of Hooda, had met the state party in-charge Vivek Bansal to demand a change of guard in the state leadership.
Ahead of their Monday's meeting, at least 20 MLAs had met the former Chief Minister Hooda in New Delhi to devise a strategy to build pressure on the party high command to accept their demands.
After the meeting with Hooda concluded, five MLAs met Venugopal at the party headquarters to put forth their demands and discuss the issue of ongoing farmers' agitation which the party plans to prominently raise in the upcoming elections to panchayat and local bodies in the state.
MLA Kuldeep Vats, who was present at the meeting told The Pioneer, "We have expressed our demands before KC Venugopal. He has assured us that MLAs will not be ignored while deciding upon the appointment at district and block level and they all will be taken into confidence.”
In the last few years, we did not have a proper organizational structure and we accept that there were some shortcomings on our part, the MLA said.
On the issue of change of guard in the state party unit, Vats said, "This will be decided by the party high command. We have expressed our views.”
Vats said, while more than 20 MLAs had met Hooda before this meeting, five later met Venugopal to put forth their views. Other MLAs will meet the central leadership later.
He however maintained that there is no rift with Kumari Selja.
We have also requested that the MLAs be given time to meet former national party chief Rahul Gandhi to discuss the political scenario in the state, he added.
After the meeting, MLA BB Batra told the mediapersons that they have demanded the appointments at district and block level should take place after consulting the MLAs and Hooda.
Amid the escalating infighting in the party, Tosham MLA Kiran Chaudhary also met Venugopal on Monday. Chaudhary said that she met the senior party leader to apprize him about the political situation in Haryana.
Last week, Kumari Selja had also met senior party leaders in New Delhi.
Selja had replaced Ashok Tanwar in September 2019 to become Haryana Congress chief.
Ahead of appointments in the state party unit, the Congress central leadership is holding a series of meetings with the state MLAs and senior leaders to take their feedback.
Notably, 19 MLAs, all loyalists of Hooda had last week met the state party in-charge Vivek Bansal in New Delhi and raised concerns over the delay in appointments on key posts at district and block level besides raising the issue of change in state party leadership.
Congress, which is the main opposition in Haryana, has a strength of 31 MLAs in the 90-member House. The party has been out of power in the state since 2014.
The internal bickering in Haryana Congress has come out in the open at a time when the party high command is struggling to resolve the infighting in its Punjab unit.