Rahul’s ‘vote chori’ allegation, collector rate hike, farmers’ demands set to dominate upcoming Monsoon Session of Haryana Assembly

To blunt the Opposition’s attack, the Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to hit back at the Congress on the issue of its failure to decide on its Legislature Party Leader.

It has been almost 10 months since the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections, and the Congress party has failed to announce its legislature party leader. If Congress does not announce its leader by August 22, it would be the third consecutive session of the Haryana Assembly to be held without any Leader of Opposition.

The Congress continues to grapple with internal disarray as it heads into the session. Despite 37 MLAs in the 90-member House, Congress is without any official leader. In June, Rahul Gandhi met the senior leadership of the Haryana Congress at Chandigarh.

Subsequently, party affairs in-charge B K Hariprasad announced that the party’s ground-level organisational cadre – district presidents and block in-charge – would be announced within 15 days. The deadline kept shifting, but the party has not yet finalised its list of district presidents, nor the CLP leader.

The BJP is all set to mock Congress on all these issues.

Farmers, SYL Canal

The Congress, however, is formulating its strategy around various key issues on which it would try to corner the BJP. These include an ongoing standoff between Haryana and Punjab on the contentious SYL Canal and farmer-related issues.

BKU leader Gurnam Singh Charuni recently sought immediate relief for farmers for major paddy crop loss due to the virus and waterlogging due to incessant rains across the region.

Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda has asked the state government to give Rs. 50,000 per acre as compensation for farmers who lost their crops. On the SYL Canal issue, Hooda criticised the government and said that “it is all due to the inaction of the state government that the SYL canal issue is yet not resolved”.

“Instead of holding meetings with the Punjab Government, Haryana should move contempt of court proceedings against Punjab in the Supreme Court as the matter is already settled in favour of Haryana, but Punjab is not implementing the SC’s decision,” Hooda had said.

On the issue of SYL Canal, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said, “Haryana will present its case in a positive and solution-oriented manner before the Supreme Court on August 13. We are confident that a fair and favourable resolution will be achieved”.

The Opposition is also going to corner the ruling BJP on the issue of the hike in collector rates across the state, which varied from 50 to 250 per cent in several areas. However, the state government refuted the Opposition’s accusations and said that around 70 per cent of the area only witnessed a 10 per cent collector rate hike.

The issue of law and order is also likely to dominate the session’s proceedings as the BJP and Congress came face to face last month when leaders from both parties hit out at each other on the issue of the crime rate in Haryana.

Announcing the dates of the session, Saini had said it would commence on August 22, with its duration to be determined by the Assembly’s Business Advisory Committee (BAC).

“Over the past 11 years, both the Centre and Haryana governments have focused on welfare schemes for the poor. The current BJP administration’s goal is to empower the underprivileged. Our government has a zero-tolerance policy on crime. Police officers have been instructed to take prompt and on-the-spot action against criminal elements,” Saini said.