Rebellion hits Congress ranks in Haryana

Haryana Congress president Bhajan Lal may have outwitted his rivals within the party in ticket distribution but trouble is brewing for him i...

Haryana Congress president Bhajan Lal may have outwitted his rivals within the party in ticket distribution but trouble is brewing for him in the race for chief ministership.

Sources disclosed that six of the nine Congress MPs from Haryana met at the residence of Union MoS for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja today and signed a joint petition for Congress president Sonia Gandhi requesting her to install anyone other than Bhajan Lal as the next CM. They have sought a meeting with Sonia tomorrow to forward their petition.

Those who have signed the petition are Selja (Ambala), Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Rohtak), Jai Parkash (Hisar), Avtar Singh Bhadana (Faridabad), Navin Jindal (Kurukshetra) and Atma Singh Gill (Sirsa). While Selja and Hooda are contenders for the top slot, others are out to settle old scores with Lal.

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The three MPs who are not in the list are Union MoS Inderjit Singh (Mahendragarh), Arvind Sharma (Karnal) and Kuldeep Bishnoi (Bhiwani).

Claiming that Lal is a natural choice for the chief ministership, sources close to him contend that Sonia has already indicated her preference by first making him the state president and then giving a lion’s share — more than 35 of the 90 — of the tickets to his supporters. The state, sources say, deserves a non-Jat CM, after having been against Jat chief ministers since 1996.

This argument takes care of most of his rivals — former PCC presidents Birender Singh and Hooda and working PCC president Randeep Singh Surjewala and leaves only one rival — Selja — in the arena. To counter her is Lal’s latest argument that the CLP leader should be picked from among MLAs.

If a majority of party MPs are making a common cause against Lal, then the PCC president himself is to blame. Bhadana has turned against him because he secured a ticket for his suppporter Mahendra Pratap, a former minister, from Mewla Maharajpur, blocking the candidature of his wife, Mamata Bhadana.

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Jai Parkash managed to get a ticket for his brother Randhir Singh from Barwala, but had to contend with a strong rebel, Anant Ram, a Lal loyalist. Navin’s father, Om Parkash Jindal, sitting MLA from Hisar, has had a rough time faced with a formidable Independent candidate, Hari Singh Saini, a former minister, known to enjoy the blessings of Lal.

Gill was counted among the former CM’s supporters but he is also against him now following the candidature of Lal loyalist Mangat Ram as a rebel against his son, Gurdeep Singh Gill, from Ratia.