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As the protest by wrestlers gathers momentum, the Congress is looking to up the ante against the coalition government of the BJP and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). But internal feuds in the state unit are a major obstacle moving forward.
To put an end to the infighting and strategise for the Lok Sabha elections next year, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda has convened a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Party insiders said Hooda’s critics Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kiran Choudhry had been invited, but Surjewala is abroad and is expected to return to India only after June 3 while Choudhry is not likely to attend the meeting. The five-time MLA had visited the protesting wrestlers when they were protesting at Jantar Mantar.
Unlike previous occasions when CLP meetings were chaired by Hooda at his official residence, the meeting on Wednesday will take place at the party office. Sources in the party said the push to end all infighting had come from the Congress high command, which had received a boost since the party won Karnataka despite the differences there between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar.
A senior Congress leader sounded optimistic about the party being able to put behind the differences in Haryana and cited the examples of Karnataka and Rajasthan. “The party high command was able to successfully bridge the differences between both the leaders (in Karnataka). Both have been given specific responsibilities in the government with the sole aim of serving the people of the state. The Congress has got a mandate and shall fulfil all its commitments. Similarly, the party has also been able to defuse tensions between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan and ensure the party poses a united face in the run-up to the Assembly polls in Rajasthan. Haryana will also be no exception. The party will fight unitedly here too and ensure the BJP-JJP coalition is unseated,” the party functionary told The Indian Express.
But not all in the state unit are convinced and pointed out the problems plaguing the state unit. “It is for the party high command to see and address the issues in the state unit. The party’s ground-level cadre has yet not been built. Although the party announced a list of 195 delegates who voted in the election for the national president last year, that list invited sharp criticism from several leaders who claimed they were not given due importance and their supporters were left in disarray,” said a leader.
The push to get its act together is on the top of the Congress agenda as the party wants to take full advantage of the growing anger against the BJP in the wake of the protests.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda told The Indian Express over the phone, “The Union government must ensure that justice is given to the sportspersons who have been subjected to such ill-treatment for these many days. They are the ones who have brought honour to our entire nation. But, I am completely surprised at the role of the Haryana government. What is the BJP leadership of the state doing? All these players who are sitting on the road seeking justice belong to our Haryana. The least, state leadership should have done was to act as a mediator and ensured that their (sportspersons) voices get heard and they get justice. On the contrary, we, the entire CLP, went to Jantar Mantar and expressed our solidarity with our daughters.”
Hooda said All India Congress Committee (AICC) Haryana in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil would be at the CLP meeting. Apart from Opposition parties, farmers’ unions in Haryana and Punjab and khap bodies in Haryana have also thrown their weight behind the wrestlers. Farmers’ bodies in Punjab have announced statewide protests on June 1 and three years later farmers’ outfits and the khaps will hold a mahapanchayat in Gohana.
