New Delhi: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief Rahul Gandhi are likely to intervene to unite the Haryana team ahead of crucial assembly polls in the state.
According to party insiders, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Haryana Dipak Babaria has submitted a report to the high command in which he has flagged a lack of unity in the state team. While Babaria has mentioned in his report that some senior leaders are not responding to his calls and messages as they see him playing a partisan role, the in charge has noted that such rival camps existed in the Haryana unit even before he took charge.
This is evident as the rival camps belonging to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and former Union minister Kumari Selja and AICC functionary Randeep Surjewala are staging a show of strength in the name of mobilising public support for the coming polls.
While the Bhupinder Singh Hooda camp has launched the "Haryana Mange Hisab" yatra that is being led by his son and Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda, Kumari Selja's camp is set to start another yatra by end of July.
"The details of our yatra are being worked out but it should start by the end of July. We will mostly cover the urban areas where the party needs to focus more," Kumari Selja told ETV Bharat.
Before the Lok Sabha elections also, the rival camps in the Haryana unit had staged separate yatras to woo the voters and had campaigned only in their respective areas, which had been noted by the AICC in charge.
One of the key members of the anti-Hooda camp, Kiran Chaudhary has already joined the BJP. She was miffed that the Lok Sabha ticket for Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat was denied to her daughter Shruti Chaudhary and was given to Rao Dan Singh at the behest of Hooda.
Over the past days, as the Hooda camp launched a charge sheet against the BJP government and plans to take it to the voters in all the 90 assembly seats, Kumari Selja made public statements demanding there should be no favouritism in the distribution of tickets and alleged that the workers were being divided as a particular camp was calling the shots instead of a collective effort to win the state polls.
Senior Haryana Congress leader Brijender Singh, a former BJP MP, played down the reported differences in the state team.
"The Congress has a good chance of winning as the ruling BJP faces a huge anti-incumbency of 10 years. The edge that we received in the national elections, will reflect in the state polls as well. The reason for the divergent opinion is that Congress ruled the state for a long time and has several layers of senior leaders who have different styles of functioning. The Congress will work together to defeat the BJP," Singh told ETV Bharat.
The former MP discounted the recent coming together of the INLD-BSP and the AAP planning to contest all 90 seats. "These are desperate moves by the regional parties and will have no impact on the Congress’ prospects," he added.
