As the assembly and parliamentary polls draw in Haryana, everyone is eyeing the prolonged organizational appointments in the state Congress. Despite witnessing the tenure of many presidents and in-charges in the last several years, the party has failed in coming up with or establishing an organization in the state in the last 9 years which added to the woo of the party high command as well. Now it has come to light that the party is likely to make organizational appointments after the declaration of election results of five states held last month. Party state president Udaybhan has assured that appointments will be made soon. But all this is not going to be so easy as the ongoing feud among the party stalwarts emerged as a huge obstacle in this.
Despite the appointment of a new state party incharge Deepak Babriya around six months ago, the scenario continues to remain unchanged.
In wake of the present situation, even the party leaders accept on anonymity that the party is facing losses due to lack of appointments. It is also well known that due to the ongoing discord among the party stalwarts, this matter has not been resolved yet. Since the state president is now claiming appointments with great confidence within the stipulated time, the party is also hopeful. But it is also not hidden from anyone that such tall claims have already been made prior to this by party leaders, presidents and in-charges. The primary cause for the absence of organizational appointments is the persistent power struggle between party stalwart Bhupendra Singh Hooda and the rival trio Randeep Surjewala, Kiran Chaudhary, and Kumari Selja (SRK), with little prospect of resolution. At present, Hooda camp is dominant in Haryana Congress and over this battle of dominance, no faction is leaving no stone unturned to prove their mettle irrespective of the losses and gains on part of the party.
Chaudhary Udaybhan, Congress State President said that the party is mostly to come up with organizational appointments that will be made in one month. In this series, district presidents and state committees will be appointed on a priority basis, followed by appointments at the block, youth, division, and sector levels.
Haryana Congress got a new in-charge in the form of Deepak Babaria on June 9 this year, but the matter of organizational appointments has not been finalized yet. Although he came up with tall claims several times that the process related to appointments will be completed soon, the situation remained the same. The main reason behind this was the ongoing differences between the political stalwarts of the party. It was expected that he would be able to end the infighting in Congress but there was no significant change in things. In the very first meeting organized by the new in-charge with the leaders of Haryana Congress, the mutual tussle and fight for supremacy had come to the fore. Of course, Deepak Babaria may have shown a tough stand and attitude in front of everyone in the meeting but could not bring the mutual differences and feud among the party leaders to an end. In continuation to aforesaid, it is worth stating that prior to him, the tenures of Shakeel Ahmed, Prithviraj Chavan, Kamal Nath, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Vivek Bansal who held the portfolio of state party in charge of Haryana Congress, were also controversial.
Following the setback in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections held in 2014, numerous party stalwarts were entrusted with the roles of president and in-charge of Haryana Congress, yet the situation remained unchanged. Tug of war was witnessed many times with heated exchanges in meetings in front of the in-charge, and supporters also confronted each other face-to-face. After all this, the party high command was seen in the role of a silent spectator in a bid to maintain balance in the party. Due to the infighting in the party witnessed the resignation of the former state party president Ashok Tanwar and Kumari Selea in 2014 and 2019 respectively.
Following the defeat in elections, many veterans have been in charge of Haryana; no one could succeed, bringing the discord among the party leaders to an end in Haryana. In Haryana, Congress has changed four in-charges in the last four years. Despite this, the infighting among the stalwarts of Haryana Congress did not end.