Two Rao leaders of the Haryana Congress are going head to head for the Gurugram Lok Sabha seat. Presently, Rao Inderjit Singh is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s MP from Gurugram and also happens to be a minister at the Centre. Two senior Congress leaders—Captain Ajay Yadav and Rao Dan Singh—are keen to contest against Singh. Captain Yadav also contested elections from Gurugram on a party ticket in 2019, receiving around five lakh votes.
The Captain, the former state Finance Minister, finds his claim to the seat even stronger this time because of his performance in the last election. However, the controversy took place when Mahendergarh MLA Rao Dan Singh also reached the meeting of leaders of the Gurugram parliamentary constituency with party in-charge Deepak Babaria in New Delhi. Rao had a one-to-one meeting with the party’s in-charge. These meetings are being held keeping in mind the upcoming elections. Dan Singh’s constituency Mahendergarh comes under the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh parliamentary seat.
For this reason, Captain Ajay Singh Yadav expressed his displeasure after attending his meeting in Gurugram. Not only this, but he also advised state in-charge Babaria to go to the ground and understand the realities of the state instead of holding meetings in the capital. “The truth will come out only after talking to the workers,” the Captian said. However, after this week-old incident, Captain Yadav’s tone has now changed. It is being said that he has also spoken to former CM and Leader of Opposition Bhupender Singh Hooda and his son, Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda. Interestingly, Dan Singh is counted among those closest to Hooda in the party. In the 2019 Assembly elections, he defeated senior BJP leader and former Education Minister Prof. Rambilas Sharma. Sources say that Rao Dan Singh is exploring possibilities for himself to contest the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh parliamentary seat along with Gurugram.
If Gurugram, along with Bhiwani-Mahendergarh is claimed by Dan Singh, then a political dispute may arise here too. This is because former CM Bansi Lal Legha’s granddaughter Shruti Chowdhary has been a Member of Parliament from the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh seat in both 2014 and 2019. Shruti Chowdhary contested this parliamentary seat both times on a Congress ticket. Shruti’s mother, MLA Kiran Chowdhary has already announced that her daughter will contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh seat.
On the other hand, Mahendragarh MLA Rao Dan Singh says that he has met the party in-charge many times before and his meetings should not be made an issue. “There is no point in discussing the Lok Sabha elections right now because tickets are not being distributed now. Nevertheless, I will accept the decision of the party high command. Whatever duty the leadership imposes on me, I will live up to it,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, Captain Ajay Singh Yadav has said that he has “no relation with any faction. My faction is the Congress party.