Rahul Gandhi pitch for Haryana tie-up with AAP divides Congress, runs into Hooda hurdle

Congress sources said the All India Congress Committee (AICC) leadership’s insistence to deny tickets to some of the sitting party MLAs has also upset the Hooda camp. Currently, the Congress has 28 MLAs in the 90-member state Assembly.

It was said earlier that the Congress’s Central Election Committee (CEC), headed by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, has cleared the tickets of a majority of Haryana’s sitting party MLAs for the polls, but sources told The Indian Express Thursday that some of these names have now been “put on hold”.

Sources said such legislators, whose candidature has been put on hold, include Dharam Singh Chhoker from Samalkha, Surender Panwar from Sonipat and Rao Dan Singh from Mahendragarh. All of them are said to be close to Hooda. Also, all of them have been facing various cases being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). While Chhoker’s son Sikander Singh was held in May, Panwar was arrested in July, with Rao Dan Singh’s premises also raided by the ED in July.

The Congress leadership’s “relook” has resulted in a delay in the release of the first list of the party candidates despite the point that the CEC had cleared nearly 66 names earlier this week.

The Congress has constituted a party sub-committee to explore a seat-sharing pact with the AAP besides deciding on candidates in about two dozen seats where there is no internal consensus. This panel has met senior party MPs from the state, including Kumari Selja and Deepender Singh Hooda, the son of Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Sources said it was not just Hoodas, but other senior state leaders who are not in favour of an alliance with the AAP.

But CLP leader Hooda is especially said to be “unhappy” because the seats which the AAP are seeking include those from where he has his nominees. These seats include Pehowa, Kalayat and Jind.

Sources have maintained that Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi is keen that the Congress enter into a seat-sharing pact with the AAP to send out a message of unity in the INDIA bloc, but several state party leaders are opposed to it.

Sources said Hooda and his loyalist Udai Bhan, the state Congress chief, walked out of a party meeting Wednesday over the proposal of the party’s seat-sharing pact with the AAP. The AICC general secretary in charge of Haryana, Deepak Babaria, tried to intervene, but could not pacify them.

The AICC leadership, sources said, is even insisting on sharing one or two seats with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP). Hooda and Bhan, sources said, strongly objected to the high command’s proposal in the cases of both the AAP and the SP.

Interestingly, the CLP leader in the AAP-ruled Punjab, Partap Singh Bajwa, too said, “I would like to urge the party high command to stay as far away as it can from the Aam Aadmi Party in Haryana.”

Sources said the AICC leadership is eyeing a similar alliance with the AAP in Delhi, due to which it has been insisting on a seat-sharing deal with the party in Haryana.

“A decision will soon be taken on seat-sharing arrangement with AAP,” Babaria had said Wednesday. He did not disclose the number of seats that will be shared with the AAP, but added that “the number shall be very few – very few, will be in single digit”.

Sources said the AAP is asking for 10 seats but the Congress is not keen to give it more than four-five seats. There could be “friendly fights” in some seats on the lines of the Congress-National Conference deal in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said.