As Bhan & Co take charge today, Haryana Cong plans show of strength

Several senior party leaders including former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda will accompany Bhan from Delhi to Chandigargh.

The party workers will first receive Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Udai Bhan (middle) at Sonipat. (File)

The 67-year-old Dalit leader and former MLA, Udai Bhan, will formally take charge as the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Wednesday. The four working presidents — Shruti Choudhry, Ram Kishan Gujjar, Jitender Kumar Bhardwaj and Suresh Gupta — will also be formally taking over their new roles at party office in Chandigarh.

Several senior party leaders including former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda will accompany Bhan from Delhi to Chandigargh — a journey that state Congress has now decided to convert into a show of strength.

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The party workers will first receive Hooda and Bhan at Sonipat. From there till Chandigarh, the cavalcade will be taking brief halts at several points. On the 216-km long stretch, there will be at least 18 points where the party workers will be holding a small reception for the new team.

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However, all eyes shall be on former state party president Kumari Selja and Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi. It was yet not confirmed if they will be attending Wednesday’s event.

The party’s decision replacing Selja with Bhan has come as a shot in the arm for Hooda who had been seeking absolute command over the state unit. Haryana Assembly polls are scheduled for 2024 and Hooda wanted a complete free hand with an aim of forming the next government.

Ever since Bhan was appointed as HPCC president, he and Hooda had been seen moving together and even addressing mediapersons, jointly. This kind of a coordination between Hooda and the HPCC’s earlier presidents, including Selja and Ashok Tanwar, had never been seen.

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Insiders told The Indian Express that, the party was desperately trying to pose a united face so that it does not meet the same fate as it met in Punjab, due to infighting.

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However, with Bishnoi venting out his anger and Randeep Surjewala coming out in his support saying that he could have been the “best HPCC president”, the infighting does not appear to have settled within Haryana Congress, yet.

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