Factionalism reared its head during the Haryana Congress’ two-day-long state party meeting, conducted on Saturday and Sunday in Chandigarh. Despite the presence of newly-appointed state incharge Deepak Babaria, party leaders left no stone unturned to drag each other through the mud. On the second day of the meeting, Babaria held private meetings with different workers, MLAs—both current and former—and district-level leaders, to gauge the mood
of the party regarding the organisation list. Babaria is slated to submit a report on the basis of these meetings to the party’s high command soon.
During the meeting, former parliamentarian Selja Kumari was met with fierce
sloganeering as she took to the stage to address the gathering. Reacting to this, Kumari said sloganeering isn’t new and that. She also addressed Deepender Hooda’s resolution letter, from which five resolutions were passed during the meeting. Kumari said that party leaders had not been consulted, adding that the resolution was not of the Congress, since the party’s manifesto is drafted by the Congress Manifesto Committee. She also went on to call the delay in the formation of the organisation list a “big shortcoming” and expressed hope that Babaria would now build the organisation from the ground up.
There were several instances of sloganeering during the meeting chaired by Babaria, which launched the gathering into some chaos. While Selja Kumari led chants in the name of Sonia Gandhi and Babaria, “Congress Party Zindabad” slogans were led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Former Minister Kiran Choudhary also targeted the Hooda camp
fiercely.
The organisation list has been suspended owing to the rampant factionalism marring the party. After taking inputs from MLAs and district-level
leaders, the party is going to hold further meetings in Delhi. If reports are to be believed, select leaders have been summoned to the party’s headquarters in the national capital for a meeting. Only after a consensus among the different groupswill a fresh organisation list be prepared by Congress’ high command.
There are currently four factions in the party’s Haryana unit. Former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala, former state president Kumari Selja and MLA Kiran Chaudhary are leading
these different groups.
The fact that the former CM is no longer considered
the face of the Congress in the state came as the biggest revelation during this meeting. State in-charge Deepak Babaria noted that the final decision for the Chief Ministerial candidate would be taken by the Congress high command. Following the uproar during the meeting, Babaria said that disciplinary action will be taken against leaders who make incendiary statements against each other.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in Haryana, the Congress is focused on preparing its organisation. Deepak Babaria seems to have understood that the path to victory in Haryana will not be easy otherwise. This is the reason the new in-charge has decided to verify the possible organisation list with the central leadership.
Babaria will now go to the ground level himself to understand the support that party leaders and workers included in the list have and to take feedback from others. After preparing a complete report, Deepak Babaria will hand it over
to the high command for approval. It is clear that he does not want protests to arise following the release of the list. Further, this seems to be in preparation for any questions that might come his way from party leaders. However, the reality will come to the fore after the verification of the probable list. The party will then be able to gauge how much support each leader has in the state.
Groupism is also being considered a major part of the state in-charge’s decision. Surjewala, Kumari, and Choudhary have continued to allege that former CM Hooda’s group only included the names of their supporters in the list. Now it has to be seen whether or not Deepak Babaria succeeds in ending this factionalism and uniting the party.
