With G-23 members of Congress stepping up pressure on the party ahead of a series of important programmes like Mehengai Par Halla Bol Rally on Sunday, followed by Bharat Jodo Yatra and the presidential polls, a demand has been raised to take action against senior leaders Bhupinder Hooda and Prithviraj Chavan who met Ghulam Nabi Azad days after he quit the party.
Hooda on his part distanced himself from the controversy saying he has been with the Gandhi family for long and their demands have been accepted with an election being held for the party president.
The former Haryana Chief Minister said he and his colleagues in the Congress have suggested Azad to avoid saying things that create bitterness among the partymen.
Senior Congress leader Kumari Selja, also a Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and former president of the party’s Haryana unit, is learnt to have lodged a complaint against Hooda, also the Leader of Opposition in the State, with the party high command and demanded a show cause notice against him.
Selja has raised the matter with some senior party leaders, including AICC Haryana in-charge Vivek Bansal.
Selja, considered Hooda’s bete noire, is also learnt to have told the party high command that such a development was not acceptable even though the former Haryana chief minister had been given a free hand in running the affairs of the Congress’ state unit.
Hooda said the "Group of 23" (G-23) members met Azad at his residence and asked him about his resignation from the party, which he had never discussed with them.
He said the G-23 had raised a demand for holding the organisational polls. Party chief Sonia Gandhi has agreed to it and the polls are now being held, he added briefing the inquisitive media. Hooda also asserted that he is an old-time Congressman who had stood with the Gandhi family even when P V Narasimha Rao was the prime minister and will continue to do so.
"We told Azad that since he has decided to quit the party now after being in it for such a long time, he should not say things that create bitterness among the partymen," Hooda clarified further.
"We had raised a demand for holding the organisational polls, which are now being held. The Congress president has agreed to our demand. Despite that Azad sahib decided to quit the party, but he had never discussed his resignation with us. We only asked him as to what happened that he had to take such a decision even after the demands were accepted," Hooda told reporters.
"He never discussed it with us and we raised the matter with him," he said, adding that sometimes things are said by leaders out of frustration and sometimes to serve their interests.
"When Narasimha Rao was the prime minister, no one stood with the Gandhi family, but I was with them at the time. I was with them then and I am still standing with the family," Hooda said.
He also said the Congress rally on September 4 will be historic. "You will see that on September 4, there will be a big rally and people will come in huge numbers," he said.
Hooda, along with other G-23 leaders Anand Sharma and Prithviraj Chavan, met Azad at the latter's residence here on Monday, after the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister resigned from the Congress, blaming the party leadership, especially Rahul Gandhi, in a five-page letter on August 26.