A day after 19 Congress MLAs, all considered to be loyalists of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda met the state party in-charge Vivek Bansal in New Delhi to demand change of guard in the state leadership, the state party chief Kumari Selja on Friday dismissed it as “speculation”.
“The MLAs have a right to put forth their views and meet the state party in-charge. I don't see any indiscipline in this and I don't feel 19 MLAs met the state party in-charge against the state party president. The state party in-charge has not given any indication on this and all this is speculation,” Selja said while denying any reports of factionalism in Haryana Congress.
Selja while talking to the mediapersons said that the process is on to appoint partymen on various key posts and put in place a strong party organizational structure in Haryana. 19 Congress MLAs, who had met Bansal in New Delhi on Thursday wanted Hooda, who is the leader of opposition, to be given a key role in the state. They had demanded strong state leadership and appointments of district and block presidents to strengthen the organisational structure of the party in Haryana.
An MLA who attended the meeting, said they have demanded that the party should be strengthened and suggest that Hooda should be given a key role. There is a need for strong leadership in Haryana party unit to win the forthcoming elections. Also, the party is yet to make appointments in organizational structure while the local body polls are likely to be announced soon. All such issues have been discussed with the state party in-charge during the meeting, the leader said. We have also sought time to meet Congress general secretary KC Venugopal next week, the leader added.
After the meeting, Bansal had told mediapersons in Delhi that as the MLAs had not met due to the Covid-19 pandemic for a long time, it was decided to take their feedback about the political situation in the state and seek their suggestions about the party's organisational structure and upcoming local body polls.
Notably, there are three prominent groups -- one of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, another of Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and also of state party president Kumari Selja in Haryana Congress.
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.