CONG APPOINTS HOODA LOYALIST UDAI BHAN AS PRESIDENT OF HARYANA UNIT

Former Haryana MLA Udai Bhan on Wednesday was appointed as the president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee. He replaces former Union minister and Dalit leader Kumari Selja. Congress general secretary K C Venugopal made the announcement in a press release on Wednesday.

According to the release, the party high command also named four working presidents for the state unit. The four leaders named as working presidents are: Former MP Shruti Choudhry, Ram Kishan Gujjar, Jitender Bhardwaj and Suresh Gupta.

While Choudhry is the daughter of Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry, Gujjar is considered to be a loyalist of Selja. Bhardwaj meanwhile is known to be close to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Gupta is known to be close to Congress communcations’ chief Randeep Surjewala, according to party functionaries familiar with developments.

Dalit leader Bhan, a threetime MLA from the now abolished Hassanpur seat and was elected a fourth time from Hodal, is also a loyalist of former chief minister Hooda, according to one of the functionaries mentioned above.

“Udai Bhan will be a dummy party chief. Being a Hooda loyalist, he will be guided by the former chief minister and his group of confidantes. Since Bhan is a Dalit face, it is appropriate that the he replaced another Dalit leader, Kumari Selja,’’ said a leader from the state unit.

On the appointments of the working presidents, one of the functionaries mentioned above said the new party set up has been devised to placate the warring factions in the state unit.

DALIT LEADER

AND FORMER MLA UDAI BHAN HAS REPLACED FORMER UNION MINISTER AND DALIT LEADER KUMARI SELJA