Congress indecisive, MLAs in key meet with Hooda today

Gurgaon: In the absence of clear directions from the Congress high command after the party’s rout in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, Congress MLAs will meet former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday amid calls for the removal of the party’s state chief, Ashok Tanwar, and renewed infighting in the ranks.
The meeting, called by Hooda, will take place in New Delhi. Sources said there was anxiety among leaders that the Congress brass had not learnt a lesson from the election debacle and the party might face a similar fate in the assembly elections scheduled in September if immediate measures are not taken to stop faction fights.
A senior party functionary, however, said Hooda too would have to take the blame for Congress’ plight in Haryana. “He himself has weakened the party by disrupting PCC chief Tanwar in whatever effort was made to strengthen party cadre,” the Congress member said.
Another senior member said Hooda wants to be party’s Haryana chief or at least a supporter to hold the key post and Sunday’s meeting will be a show of strength. A close aide of the former chief minister said he will review Congress’ defeat in the Lok Sabha polls and plan for the forthcoming assembly polls.
Former minister and Congress veteran Capt Ajay Yadav, who lost in the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat to BJP’s Rao Inderjit Singh, said Hooda and his supporters did not campaign for the party in Gurgaon.
“I raised the issue before the coordination committee but it was ignored. Now, he wants to be the state party chief,” he said.
Congress in Haryana is split into factions, led by Randeep Surjewala, Hooda, Tanwar, Kumari Selja, Kiran Choudhry and Ajay Yadav. They failed to reach a consensus before the polls, thus affecting the party’s performance. But it’s the Hooda-Tanwar feud, party members said, which was hurting Congress most.
The two have been in confrontation mode for a while and it has embarrassed the party on several occasions but the Cong-ress brass has still refused to make changes in the Haryana unit.
Senior party leaders have, meanwhile, tried to iron out the differences but failed. In October 2016, Tanwar sustained injuries during a scuffle between his and Hooda’s supporters over putting up their posters before Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s visit. Recently, Hooda’s supporters targeted Tanwar at a meeting called by Congress’ Haryana in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad in Delhi. They pressed for a leadership change in Haryana over the party’s failure to win any of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Asked about Sunday’s meeting, Hooda told TOI said “old colleagues will come and discuss the party’s prospects in the forthcoming elections”, but denied that any discussion about Tanwar was planned. “It will not be part of Sunday's meeting. This matter is to be decided by AICC chief Rahul Gandhi,” he said.