New Delhi : LoP Rahul Gandhi and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge have cracked the whip to curb infighting in poll-bound Haryana and decided not to field sitting MPs in the assembly polls.
Elections for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana will be held on Oct 1. The result will be out on Oct 4. The Congress is hopeful of defeating the BJP that has ruled the state for the past 10 years and faces strong anti-incumbency which was reflected in the recent Lok Sabha polls in which the grand old party won 5 out of 10 parliamentary seats.
“No sitting MP of either House will be allowed to contest the assembly polls,” AICC in charge of Haryana Dipak Babaria told ETV Bharat.
According to party insiders, the Haryana Congress has been divided into two broad camps led by former chief minister and sitting CLP leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and state unit chief Udai Bhan.
The rival camp was led by former union minister and former state unit chief Kumari Selja, who was recently elected to the Lok Sabha from Sirsa reserved seat, former state minister and AICC functionary Randeep Surjewala, now a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan.
Former state unit chief and ex state minister Kiran Chaudhary was also part of the anti-Hooda camp but left the Congress to join the BJP a few months ago and is now a Rajya Sabha member.
Chaudhary was miffed as she was denied a Congress Lok Sabha ticket from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat allegedly at the instance of Bhupinder Hooda.
After the Lok Sabha polls, Kumari Selja had targeted Hooda by questioning the distribution of tickets at the former chief minister’s behest and said a fair selection of candidates would have won the Congress at least 8 out of 10 Lok Sabha seats.
Recently, Selja kicked up a storm in the state politics by publicly expressing her desire to join state politics and steer the state if given a chance.
Though the state leaders had been cautioned by the high command to avoid public spats and controversial statements ahead of the assembly polls, over the past weeks both Selja and Surjewala had been conducting separate mass contact events to mobilize the voters in their areas of influence.
“See, if various party leaders take out yatras in their areas they are in a way only strengthening the Congress. So that should not be a problem. We are confident of winning Haryana but do want to take chances,” said Babaria.
The new directive would apply to both Selja and Surjewala and is likely to go in favour of Bhupinder Hooda but would also limit the chances of his son and Rohtak Lok Sabha MP Deepender Hooda who has been campaigning across the state over the past weeks and was being projected as a potential chief ministerial candidate.
According to party insiders, Hooda senior had stated categorically that this was his last election and may have been harbouring an ambition to pass on the baton to his son Deepender.
According to party insiders, a verbal spat between Selja and state unit chief Udai Bhan had taken place recently during a key strategy meeting chaired by both Rahul Gandhi and Kharge to prepare for the three assembly polls Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand and UT Jammu and Kashmir.
Further, differences between senior Haryana leaders also cropped up during the Screening Committee meetings held over the past two days. Party insiders said it would be ensured that winnable candidates suggested by the senior leaders may be fielded to strike a balance.
Former union minister and ex-BJP leader Birender Singh and his son Brijendra Singh, who belong to the anti-Hooda camp, had joined the Congress before the Lok Sabha elections.
