New Delhi: Rumblings have started within the Congress two days after three key G-23 members Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Prithviraj Chavan met former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who resigned from the party on August 26 and blamed Rahul Gandhi for the party’s misfortune. The three senior leaders met Azad on August 30, setting off speculation within the party circles. Many in the grand old party had become suspicious after the meeting as Azad had plans to float a new party, which, the Congress insiders fear, could lead to the exit of more leaders.
Miffed over the development, party veteran leader Kumari Selja wrote a letter to AICC Haryana in-charge Vivek Bansal, urging him to issue a show cause notice to Bhupinder Singh Hooda on why he met Azad, who has been publicly slamming the high command. “Yes, I have received a letter from Seljaji. I will convey her message to the high command, who will then take a view on the matter,” AICC Haryana in-charge Vivek Bansal told ETV Bharat.
When asked how he viewed the meeting between the three leaders and Azad, Bansal said, “I don’t think anyone in the party would take a positive view of the meeting.” Kumari Selja, a former union minister, former MP and former Haryana unit chief, is considered close to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Kumari Selja belongs to the anti-Hooda camp and was asked by the high command a few months ago to make room for Hooda in Haryana politics.
Kumari Selja, who was the state unit chief, was asked by Sonia Gandhi to resign so that the party could announce Uday Bhan, a close aide of Hooda, as the new Haryana Congress president. Party insiders said Selja was not very happy over the development, but had to go by the decision of the high command. Both Selja and Bhan belong to the Dalit community, which the Congress tried to balance by having Hooda, who belongs to the dominant Jat community, as CLP leader.
The Selja camp had suggested that concentration of power in the hands of Hooda may not be beneficial, but the high command opted for Hooda, who had promised to win the state back for the party. “This is her payback time,” a senior AICC functionary said in Selja’s letter about Hooda’s meeting with Azad.
While the Hooda-Selja rivalry is known in the party circles, the complaint against former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has come from a low-profile party functionary Virendra Vashisht, who is part of the Indian Overseas Department. According to sources, Vashisht has written a letter to AICC Disciplinary Committee member Tariq Anwar urging him that the panel should take appropriate action against Chavan, who allegedly made remarks against Rahul Gandhi in TV interviews after Azad’s resignation and also met him.
Sources in the panel said they will review the request and take suitable action if needed. Party insiders said the voices against Chavan and Hooda were indicative of the unease that Azad’s exit, his subsequent charges against the party and Rahul Gandhi and the activities of the G-23 members have caused within the Congress, which is trying to regroup nationally.
