Infighting among the top leaders of the Haryana Congress has escalated after senior leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced a mega rally on August 18, in the run-up to the Assembly polls to be held later this year, without any formal intimation being sent to State Congress president Ashok Tanwar.
Mr. Tanwar told The Hindu that he has no formal information or invite for the ‘Parivartan Maha Rally’ to be held in Rohtak on August 18.
“I have come to know about the rally through newspapers. There has been no deliberation about participating in the rally as of now. With elections around the corner, everyone should fight with unity against the ruling BJP to oust them from power as it is what the people of the State want,” he said.
Wait and watch
On whether he would participate in the rally if invited, Mr. Tanwar said, “Let’s see what happens. Going there or not going there [to the rally] is hypothetical at this point of time.”
The Congress has been struggling to set its house in order ahead of the Assembly polls. The party’s State unit seems to be divided between two camps — one headed by Mr. Hooda and the other by Mr. Tanwar .
Recently, Mr. Hooda held a meeting of the party’s leaders in Delhi in which 13 Haryana legislators participated. Mr. Tanwar and some other senior leaders of the party were not present in the meeting.
Attacks against the Haryana Congress president sharpened after the Lok Sabha election results in which the party faced defeat in all 10 seats in the State.
