Haryana Cong infighting intensifies, Hooda group seeks Tanwar, Choudhry’s removal
CHANDIGARH:The internal strife in the opposition Congress in Haryana intensified on Monday with party MLAs supporting former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda demanding removal of Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar and Congress Legislature Party leader Kiran Choudhry from their posts.
The Hooda loyalists, who held a meeting in Chandigarh on the opening day of the budget session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, threatened to hand over their resignations from the state assembly to Congress president Sonia Gandhi if the two leaders are not removed. Hooda and his supporters constitute 13 of 17 MLAs of the party in the state assembly.
Kuldeep Sharma and Raghuvir Singh Kadian, who held a press conference after the meeting, said that they would meet and seek time from the Central leaders of the party to press their demand for removal of Tanwar and Choudhry from their posts without any further delay.
“The state leadership has been weakening the party. There is no strategy or system. We cannot work with them any longer,” they told reporters in presence of all the MLAs who attended the meeting.
The demand appears to be a direct fallout of an FIR registered against Hooda and his MP son Deepender Singh Hooda under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Delhi in connection with the clash of party workers at a Congress event in October 2016 in which Tanwar was hurt. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had asked party’s veteran leader Sushil Kumar Shinde to probe the alleged attack.
Kuldeep Sharma said the atmosphere in the state unit had been vitiated to such an extent that no dialogue was possible. “The inquiry conducted by Shinde has given a clean chit, but still a complaint was filed against the former chief minister and the case was registered,” he said. The bitter infighting has plunged the Congress into turmoil at the start of the important budget session of the state assembly.
There was also confusion over the CLP meeting held to finalise the party’s strategy and issues to be raised in the House. Kuldeep and other MLAs claimed they were invited for the CLP meeting, but were later informed that it was not happening. Choudhry, on the other hand, told reporters that she had not convened any meeting. However, the HPCC had sent emails to journalists on Sunday, informing them that the CLP meeting would be held at the state unit headquarters. Besides Choudhry, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kuldeep Bishnoi and Renuka Bishnoi were not present at the meeting held by the Hooda group. When contacted, Tanwar said he is not aware of the statements made by some party MLAs. “I will give my reaction after finding out what they have stated,” he said.
Group rivalries have been at play in the Haryana Congress for the past two years with members of the two factions having a go at each other every now and then. The Hooda loyalists had sought removal of the two leaders last year also, but their demand was ignored. The central leadership had also initially made efforts for a truce, but without any results.