The Congress MLAs led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Sunday staged a “satyagraha”as part of the Congress's nationwide initiative against disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha following his conviction in a defamation case by a court of Surat (Gujarat). The Congress MLAs and other leaders gathered at the state Congress office situated in Chandigarh to raise their voice against the disqualification of former party president Rahul Gandhi from the Parliament. They paid floral tributes to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi there. Stating there is no place for vengeance in a democracy, Bhupinder Singh Hooda said. “BJP is doing vendetta politics against Rahul Gandhi, but the Congress is ready to fight against it while walking on the path of Satyagraha.” He also alleged that the BJP is engaged in diverting the attention of the public from the real issues. Haryana Congress president Udai Bhan said: “No matter how hard BJP tries, it cannot suppress the voice of Congress and Rahul Gandhi. Every worker of Congress will raise his voice against the undemocratic attitude of BJP. Congress is committed to protect the Constitution of the country and freedom of expression.” Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda alleged that the government is suppressing the voice of the Opposition by misusing the institutions. He also said: “I have never seen such a situation in my entire parliamentary career that the government itself was obstructing the proceedings of the Parliament. This is happening for the first time because the government wants to suppress the demand for JPC on the Hindenburg report being raised by Rahul Gandhi. The government wants to suppress the voice of the Opposition to such an extent that when all the opposition MPs were going to meet the President and give a memorandum that after the cancellation of Rahul Gandhi's membership, the police detained them.” Meanwhile, three former MLAs and as many as 53 local leaders from different political parties including BJP, JJP, INLD and Aam Aadmi Party Sunday joined Congress. The former legislators, who joined Congress, are; Padam Singh Dahiya, Bijendra Kadian alias Billu and Mularam Gurjar. A former INLD MLA from Rohat (Sonipat), Dahiya had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election as the party candidate from Sonipat in 2014. Later, he became district president of JJP of deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala while joining the new party in 2019. Recently, he expressed his willingness to join Congress while leaving JJP. Bijendra Kadian alias Billu from Panipat was a minister during Bansi Lal-led Haryana Vikas Party government and had joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2022 after the party won Punjab Polls. The third former MLA Mula Ram Gurjar had earlier represented Nangal Chaudhry as an independent candidate. He contested the 2019 election from this seat as a JJP candidate but lost the poll battle. The Congress claims: “The people of the state are fed up with the misdeeds of BJP-JJP and this has led to a stampede in the ruling coalition. The situation is such that by the time the state gets to the Vidhan Sabha election, there will be no ticket taker left in BJP-JJP and other parties as the people of the state have already made up their mind to vote for the Congress.” Haryana Congress president Udai Bhan says: “The political climate of the state has changed. The wind blowing in favour of the Congress has now taken the form of a storm, by the time the elections come, it will turn into a typhoon.”
