Congress plans bus-yatra in Hry to put up united face in polls

| | Chandigarh
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Congress plans bus-yatra in Hry to put up united face in polls

Tuesday, 19 March 2019 | PNS | Chandigarh

The Congress, which is plagued by factionalism and infighting in Haryana state party unit, is planning to launch a bus yatra to bring all its warring state leaders together in view of Lok Sabha polls.

The voting to10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana is scheduled to be held on May 12.

The Congress has planned to launch a bus yatra to carry out its election campaign on 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

“We are hopeful that travelling and dining together during the course of the campaign through bus yatra will help to iron out differences among the state party leaders and put a united fight against the BJP in Haryana,” said Congress general secretary in-charge of party affairs in Haryana, Ghulab Nabi Azad while talking to the mediapersons on Monday in New Delhi. He was accompanied by Haryana state party chief Ashok Tanwar.

Azad also announced that the coordination committee for Lok Sabha polls for Haryana Congress. He said that the committee is headed by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and has 15-member as announced in the previous order, which was withdrawn on Friday.

The faction-ridden Haryana Congress is at present desperately looking to make a comeback in the state. Haryana Congress is divided in two dominant groups each led by state party chief Ashok Tanwar, a dalit leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, an upper caste Jat.

When asked about infighting in the Haryana Congress, Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “I have planned that all party leaders will travel in a bus across the state while campaigning for polls so that the leaders can resolve their differences and the party can present a united face in polls.”

“The details of the yatra will be finalized. I had started this bus yatra model nearly 20 years ago when I was in charge of the party’s affairs in Karnataka and then replicated it successfully in Andhra Pradesh. I am sure that it would work in Haryana too,” Azad said.

The senior Congress leader added that his experience in Andhra, back in 2003-2004, was that while the leaders may have their personal feuds, after they travel together for a few days, spend time with each other, the differences disappear.

When asked if he is sure that the model will work in Haryana, which is suffering from factionalism since long, Azad said, “Andhra was a bigger state at that time. Haryana is comparatively a smaller state with 10 Lok Sabha seats and 90 assembly seats. After Lok Sabha polls, assembly polls are also scheduled to be held later this year.”

We have another 6-8 months before the state assembly elections are here and we would try to touch all assembly constituencies during this bus tour and strengthen the party, he added.

Azad, who was appointed as in-charge of Haryana Congress unit in January is yet to visit Haryana and conduct a meeting of state party unit in the state.

The Congress leader said that his appointment has come a little later but he is confident that the party will perform well in Haryana in the polls.

The parliamentary election in Haryana are much later in the sixth phase and a date for the launch of the poll campaign would be decided soon, he added.

Notably, the faction led by former CM Hooda had been demanding to make him the state party chief. Last year, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, along with his 12 loyalists MLAs had carried out a rath yatra to connect with the people of all 90 constituencies while his detractor Ashok Tanwar had kicked off a cycle yatra in the state.

Apart from factions of Hooda and Tanwar, senior leaders including Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Kiran Choudhry heads other factions within the party.

The Congress could retain only one Lok Sabha seats out of 10 in Lok Sabha polls 2014. In  assembly polls held later that year, the party was reduced to 15 seats, even losing the status of the main opposition party to the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in the state assembly.

The number of Congress MLAs had later increased to 17 after Kuldeep Bishnoi’s HJC’s merger in the party in 2016.

 

COORDINATION COMMITTEE TO MEET TODAY

Chandigarh: Three days after withdrawing the order of coordination committee list for Haryana Congress, the party on Monday issued the same list.

The coordination committee will be headed by two-time former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and have 15 members including state party chief Ashok Tanwar, CLP leader Kiran Choudhry, MLA Randeep Surjewala, Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja, MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi, Mahender Pratap Singh, Ajay Singh Yadav, Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda, former MP Navin Jindal, Kailasho Saini, Anil Thakkar, MLA Kuldeep Sharma, MLA Jaivir Singh Balmiki and Sardar Jaipal Singh Lali were members of the committee.

While announcing the coordination committee for Lok Sabha for Haryana Congress, party senior leader Ghulab Nabi Azad, said the order was withdrawn last week because the party wanted to declare a few other committees for Haryana simultaneously after ensuring that all important leaders of the state representing various castes and parts of Haryana were accommodated.

He maintained that the remaining committees including campaign committee, management committee for Lok Sabha will be announced in a few days.

The announcement of coordination committee had on Friday last reportedly upset Hooda and his loyalists, who had been demanding his appointment as state party chief.

Hooda, however denied such reports and maintained that the party is united.

“The coordination committee will meet on Tuesday to chalk out strategy for Lok Sabha polls,” he said while talking to the mediapersons in New Delhi.

Hooda said that the party is united and is confident of winning all 10 seats in Haryana in general elections 2019.

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