Kamal Nath warns Haryana Cong leaders against public outbursts

CHANDIGARH: AICC general secretary and in-charge of Haryana affairs Kamal Nath on Wednesday warned state party leaders against airing their grievances through media or else they would invite action.

The warning came within minutes of his meeting with almost all senior Congress leaders from the state when a few of them tried to highlight the repeated anti-Congress utterances by some others.

Asking them not to speak against each other, Kamal Nath said he will not tolerate indiscipline and take stern action against those indulging in anti-party activities or speaking against each others.

Telling them to ‘let the bygones be bygones’, he said that since they all were senior leaders, any remarks by them against each other through media left an adverse impact on the party. He asked them to bring their grievances to him.

The Congress leaders had been called by Kamal Nath after some squabbling leaders had met him to complain against each other. It followed the verbal spats between Congress legislature party leader Kiran Choudhry and others belonging to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda camp.

State president Ashok Tanwar, Hooda, MPs Kumari Selja, Deepender Hooda and Shadi Lal Batra; MLAs Kiran Choudhry, Kuldeep Sharma, Randeep Surjewala and Kuldeep Bishnoi; former HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana and former MLA Balbir Pal Shah were present in the meeting.

Groupism within Congress had only got sharper during the past fortnight after Kiran Choudhry stated that chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar was honest and had personal integrity. Though Choudhry insisted that her remark was twisted out of context as she had also added that Khattar’s honesty was of no use as he had failed to check the corruption in his government, several Hooda loyalists, including Kuldeep Sharma, Karan Dalal and Mullana took on Choudhry demanding her removal from the party.