After facing humiliating defeat in Haryana in the recently concluded lok Sabha elections 2014, where the party retained only one seat out of ten seats, the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president has refused to join the resignation retinue of the Congress, on moral grounds.
HPCC president Ashok Tanwar said, “I won’t resign from my post, which was handed over to me just a month prior to elections. Rather people, who have been faltering on all grounds within the party for a long time should, call it a day.” The HPCC president was targeting his predecessor, Phool Chand Mullana, while doling out this statement.
As the former HPCC president, Mullana who is Hooda’s loyalist, failed to keep factionalism at bay within the party, but he even promoted it which in turn resulted in a crushing defeat for the Congress in one of its stronghold. However, due to bad performance of the party in the lok Sabha polls, speculations were ripe that either Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda or the State Congress president would take the responsibility for the humiliation suffered by the party in Haryana and submit their resignation on moral grounds.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda, at the very first attempt cleared the air by saying that the party was reduced to a laughing stock in the State because of the communication gap between the voters and the workers of the party, brushing aside all possibility of resigning, he rather stressed on strengthening the party. Under these circumstances the party president was put on the anvil.
On the other hand, the talk of changing the leadership is gaining momentum within the party, to reinforce and improve its position in the upcoming Assembly election of the State to be held in October this year. Many within the party are in favor of Rajya Sabha MP, Kumari Selja to take the reigns of the party in her hands by becoming the president. Chaudhary Birender Singh had already proposed her name for the post, before Tanwar was appointed as the state Congress president. Reacting over this chatters doing the round within the party, Tanwar said that these senior leaders, who change their stance very often are solely responsible for Congress party’s current position.
“Now it is time to rethink our policies and strengthen the party. A meeting has been called on May, 20 in Delhi, which will be attended by me, AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmad, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and secretaries of the state Congress to build up the strategy for upcoming Assembly elections. Thereafter we will call a meeting of all the party workers as soon as possible in Chandigarh,” Tanwar added .