Debacle in the three states Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and the adjoining Rajasthan has forced the faction-ridden Haryana Congress to mull over its weakened position in the state. Despite the tall claims of ‘ ‘all well in the party’’ by the stalwarts, things do not seem in a good shape in the state Congress. It is a noticeable fact that presently the party is divided in two factions.
Be it state Congress bigwigs Bhupinder Singh Hooda or leaders of the opposite faction within the party — Selja, Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala, and former minister Kiran Choudhary know as SRK, all are pretty familiar with the fact that it will be an uphill task to emerge victorious in the forthcoming polls with standing united and the same emerges as a serious reason for introspection.
In view of the ongoing battle of dominance, leaders from both factions are on toes to strengthen their position. So far Hooda and his supporters seem in a better position as the several big shots from the other parties joined his faction. A considerable political development occurred in the state politics after the the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Nirmal Singh and his daughter Chitra Sarwara announced to join the Congress soon bidding a farewell to the party on Thursday. Everyone is pretty familiar with the fact that Nirma has been loyal to Hooda and shares good bonding with him. Ahead of assembly polls held in 2019, Nirmal Singh and Chitra quit the Congress after they were denied the ticket.
Both contested the elections unsuccessfully from Ambala cantt and Aseem Goyal respectively but gave a neck to neck fight to their opponents gaining a huge sizable vote share. Joining of the Both is most likely to strengthen the hands of Hooda in the districts falling on GT Road belts and are believed to be filed from the aforementioned seats by the Congress. Apart from this, Kumari Selja and Nirmal Singh have been at loggerheads earlier. It is learnt that due to the dissent of Kumari Selja Nirmal Singh and Chitra were denied the ticket and later it proved a setback to the Congress as the party faced fiasco on both seats.
In this series, several prominent faces including former MLA and State President of JJP Haryana Legal Cell Suraj Bhan Kajal, former Principal Secretary (Home) of Haryana, retired IAS Vinay Singh Yadav, Ch Balbir Singh (State President, Samajwadi Party), former candidate from Pundri and Pai Legislative Assembly Sajjan Singh Dhull, retired IAS Wazir Singh Goyat, retired GM Haryana Roadways Kuldeep Ahlawat, retired Tahsildar Pyarelal, former district spokesperson of INLD Rewari Totaram, independent candidate from Kosli Assembly seat Mrs Vinod Kumari Chauhan, Bhupinder (State Vice President Youth JJP) had joined the Congress a few days ago. Similarly on the lines of Hooda, Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala and Kiran Chaudhary are leaving no stone unturned to bring maximum leaders from other parties to their faction.
Since the Congress is a divided house in the state, no party leader can overlook the fact that it would not be a cakewalk to win the assembly battle as the organisation appointments are pending and much awaited for more than a period of the last nine years. The widened rift among both groups over the dominance in the party has delayed organisational restructuring, while the BJP and AAP have active booth and state-level cadres.. Notably, Hooda faction has the support of mist of the legislators.
