Haryana Congress, a divided house in state is continuously witnessing rift among the party bigwigs ahead of polls which may result in huge loss to the party in forthcoming polls. Despite the efforts of the party high command, the infighting continues to surface and trouble is brewing in state Congress as with the launching of ‘’Jan Sandesh Yatra’’ Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala and Kiran Chaudhary, known as ‘SRK’ group, have joined hands against the unilateral hold of Bhupinder Hooda and aides in a bid to prove their dominance ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections due this year.
The intense campaign comes as leaders expect that the BJP may advance the Assembly elections to coincide with Lok Sabha elections.Despite the direction from the state party incharge Deepak Babriya, the SRK faction has launched a separate ‘ Jan Sandesh Yatra’ which may lead to political ruckes within the party. The scene in Haryana is a mirror reflection of what the party is facing in adjoining Punjab with Navjyot Singh Siddhu holding parallel rallies and conduct of program in the state much to the chagrin of the state leadership with whom he has an acrimonious relationship. It is worth mentioing that the yatra will culminate in Ambala in mid February. Surjewala could not attend the inauguration of the yatra, which the leaders said will cover all Lok Sabha seats.
In continuation to this, As ‘SRK’ went ahead with their yatra, party in-charge Deepak Babaria shot off a letter asking leaders not to hold parallel programmes and that workers should not be part of any programme other than ‘Ghar Ghar Congress’. He had issued the letter directing the party leaders not to conduct any separate campaign or program amid the ongoing party’s ‘Har Ghar Congress Ghar Ghar Congress’ in the state terming it the official program of state Congress. It was being considered a set back to SRK Group. However, Deepak Babria had not mentioned the name of any particular leader but it was termed as a warning to the SRK faction which has started ‘Jansandesh Yatra’ starting from Hisar on January 17. However, the senior leaders including SRK group defied it and went ahead with their programme in Hisar, which is Selja’s hometown.
It is noticeable faction that Surjewala and Selja hold key position of General Secretaries and members of the Congress Working Committee respectively. Over the battle of dominance, these three leaders had been opposed to Hooda for a long time and had been eyeing the post of Chief Minister, which had gone to the veteran leader earlier. But so far all could not succeed in weakening him as strengthen themselves in the state Congress. It is evident from the prevailing political scenario that Hooda has got a head start and is perceived to be the frontrunner. His clout in the party state unit could be gauged from the fact that he managed to get his close follower Uday Bhan as state president.
The leaders from oppostion faction accuse. Hooda not cooperating with these leaders as most of the party workers owed their allegiance to him and of taking one sided decisios. Hooda has the strong and unilateral hold in the state Congress and was was also part of the G-23 that sought clarity on Congress high command earlier. In reaction to this, Selja had sought action against Hooda for meeting Ghulam Nabi Azad after the latter attacked the Gandhi but scenarion remains unchanged as the party high command is pretty familiar with the stature of Hooda.
BJP has decided that this time in the Lok Sabha elections, apart from the Modi wave, the construction of Shri Ram temple in Ayodhya should be given maximum publicity. Apart from this, other issues that came up from time to time were also taken advantage of.
The cluster in-charge will report directly to the central leadership of the party in Delhi. The party high command will also give them direct directions if needed and take their reports. Especially the entire responsibility of implementing the seat-wise strategy related to elections will be on these cluster in-charges.