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Journalism of Courage
At a time when there are reports of discord in the Congress in Haryana, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala on Tuesday said the central leadership would decide who the Chief Minister would be if the party won the October 5 polls. His comments came a day after his son and the party’s Kaithal candidate Aditya said he would like his father to be the next CM.
“Who will become the CM? Everyone aspires to become a chief minister,” Surjewala told reporters in Kaithal. “(Sirsa MP Kumari) Selja ji also wants to be one, why not? She is my elder sister. Chaudhary Bhupinder Singh Hooda would also like to be the CM. Besides the three of us, some other party workers can also have this aspiration. But, the final decision will be taken by Rahul Gandhi ji and Mallikarjun Kharge ji. They will decide and whatever decision they take will be acceptable to all of us.”
Hooda, Selja, and Surjewala so far have not been seen on the same platform during the ongoing campaign. They are expected to be on the dais when Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, addresses an election rally in Barwala in Hisar district on Thursday.
Asked about Union Minister and former CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s offers to Selja to join the BJP, Surjewala said, “I respect Manohar Lal Khattar ji because of his age, due to his stature, he is my elder. But Narendra Modi ji did not even bring Khattar ji to his Kurukshetra rally to avoid any vote-cutting. I would like to suggest to Khattar ji that he should worry about his ministerial berth and see that he is not removed as the minister the same way he was removed as the CM.”
Dismissing reports of factionalism in the state Congress, Hooda said on Tuesday, “The entire Congress, all workers are working hard, not only one leader or another. There is an immense wave in the party’s favour.”
However, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini continued to attack the Congress, saying, “The basic character of the Congress has always been anti-Dalit. They have always insulted their leaders. If any Dalit leader in Congress rises a little with his hard work, then this has been the character of the party that is in front of the entire country that it has worked to crush him down.” Selja is from a Dalit community.
