Haryana Cong revamp: Bansi Lal’s granddaughter, a Hooda loyalist, close aides of Selja and Surjewala named working presidents

1. Shruti Choudhry

A former member of Parliament, Shruti Choudhry is daughter of Congress’ senior leader and Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry and granddaughter of Bansi Lal, Haryana’s former chief minister. After the death of her father Surender Singh in 2005, Shruti was chosen by the party to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency. She defeated INLD’s Ajay Singh Chautala by a margin of over 55,000 votes. She re-contested the same constituency in 2014 but could not win. She had served as a member of the Lok Sabha committees on agriculture and empowerment of women from 2009.

2. Ram Kishan Gujjar

A former MLA of Naraingarh, Ram Kishan Gujjar’s wife Shalley Chaudhary is the current MLA from Naraingarh. Shalley was elected as Naraingarh’s first woman MLA. Gujjar could not contest the 2019 assembly polls due to his involvement in an abetment of suicide case. He is considered a loyalist of former HPCC president Kumari Selja. Journalist Yash Pal Khanna’s son Pankaj had committed suicide in June 2009 in Naraingarh. Yash had lodged a complaint against Gujjar, accusing him and two businessmen of abetting his son’s suicide. Based on this complaint and a suicide note purportedly written by Pankaj, Gujjar was booked and a case was registered. He had to stay in jail for over two months before he was released on bail. He had also appealed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which is still pending.

3. Jitender Kumar Bhardwaj

An old Hooda loyalist and a businessman by profession, Jitender Kumar Bhardwaj is grandson of Lachi Ram who had served as president of Sohna block Congress committee since 1942 for over three decades. Bhardwaj has also been associated with Congress as an active member for over two decades. Based in Gurgaon, Bhardwaj had been working as Haryana Congress Committee spokesman and had been a former member on board of directors, Haryana Pollution Control Board. He also worked as president of the Gurgaon district Congress committee from September 7, 2010 till date. In the past, he had worked as president of Sohna block Congress committee and had been in charge of Bihar and Jharkhand (NSUI) during 1997-98. He had also been president of District Youth Congress, Gurgaon in 1996-97 and been a general secretary of Haryana Youth Congress during 1994-95.

He is currently running a branch of Institute of Computer Accountants at Gurgaon, working as a channel partner with Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, is an authorised distributor of Terra Motors (Japan) for eight states in North India and owns an infrastructure firm. He has also started an electric mobility business of vehicles through a single integrated application.

4. Suresh Gupta

A loyalist of Randeep Singh Surjewala, Gupta is based in Panipat and was a co-convener of Haryana Pradesh Congress election manifesto committee in the 2019 assembly elections and had also served as chairman of Haryana Pradesh Congress Seva Dal (1994-1997), member of the Haryana Pradesh election committee (1996-2014), organizing secretary of All India Congress Seva Dal (1998-2000) and organizer of All India Congress Seva Dal (2002-2006). Gupta had also served as a president of district Congress committees of Karnal Urban (2002-2006), Panipat (1997-2002) and also contested election from Karnal assembly constituency in 2000. He had also been general secretary of Haryana Pradesh Youth Congress (1989-1994), organising secretary Youth Congress Haryana (1996-1989) and treasurer of District Youth Congress, Karnal (1983-1986). He was also elected member of Zila Parishad, Panipat (1994-2000) and member of Block Samiti (1991-1994) and elected sarpanch of Madlauda, Panipat (1983-1988). He is also a former president of All India Maharaja Aggarsain Yuva Aggarwal Samaj (2000-2019).