New Haryana Cong in-charge sets off to a familiar scene in party: top leaders fighting openly

As Babaria, a Gujarat Congress leader appointed as in-charge of Delhi and Haryana on June 9, chaired the meeting at the party office in Chandigarh, he was a witness to leaders who were sharing the stage constantly interrupting when others were speaking.

The camps of CLP leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana Congress president Udai Bhan; Kiran Choudhry; Selja; and Randeep Surjewala shouted slogans in favour of their respective leaders. At one point, Babaria stood up and rebuked those raising slogans.

As Hooda’s supporters raised slogans demanding that he be declared the Congress CM candidate for next year’s Assembly elections, Selja, a known critic of Hooda, stood up and asked party workers to rather raise slogans in favour of Sonia Gandhi and Babaria.

Hooda also got up then and asked party workers to shout slogans for the party.

Sources said Hooda’s son and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda presented what he called a “charter of the Congress party’s vision”. Selja reacted by saying it was not the Congress manifesto and that it would be formulated by a manifesto committee, and released by the party.

According to leaders, Babaria told party workers to stop promising tickets to their supporters. “They need to know that the right to distribute party tickets is solely with the high command, and nobody else,” he said.

Babaria also made an appeal to party leaders to present a united face for the elections next year, including for the Lok Sabha.

As she left, Selja played down the scenes of ruckus, saying: “It is routine that party workers get excited and shout slogans in favour of their respective leaders. It is no big deal. I submitted my five demands to the party, which include that the party needs to immediately build the cadre at the ground level. I am sure that now that the new party in-charge has taken over, it shall be done soon.”

Babaria, who is on a two-day tour of Haryana, is the fourth Haryana Congress in-charge in the past few years. Before him, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Vivek Bansal and Shaktisinh Gohil were in-charge of the party for Haryana. While Azad left the Congress, Bansal had to make way after he was held responsible for Congress candidate Ajay Maken’s loss in the Rajya Sabha polls from Haryana. Bansal was replaced by Gohil, who has now taken over as Gujarat Congress president, and been replaced by Babaria.

The same is the situation with the post of party president in Haryana. In quick succession in the state since the 2019 poll loss of the Congress, Ashok Tanwar gave way to Selja, after a constant tussle with Hooda, and she in turn made way for Hooda loyalist Udai Bhan.

Last year, prominent leader Kuldeep Bishnoi had quit the Congress, accusing Hooda of ignoring other party leaders in the state and dominating the party’s decisions.

But while Hooda has been unwilling to cede an inch of his tight hold over the Congress state unit — with a majority of the party’s MLAs supporting him — the Congress cannot afford to displease him. Hooda is still the party’s biggest crowd-puller in the state and its best chance for the 2024 polls.