New Delhi: The Congress is trying to pacify a miffed Kuldeep Bishnoi and asking him not to go against the party’s official candidate for the Rajya Sabha election from Haryana, Ajay Maken. According to sources over the past two days, Rahul Gandhi, who is abroad, spoke to Bishnoi while Maken too tried to pep up the Adampur MLA, who had skipped a crucial strategy meet over the Rajya Sabha elections recently.
Bishnoi, son of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, is miffed as he was being considered for a key post in the recently revamped Haryana unit but was left out as the high command named Udai Bhan, a loyalist of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the new state unit chief.
The responsibility to ensure the victory of the party's Rajya Sabha nominee from Haryana Ajay Maken has now fallen on Hooda’s shoulders. The Congress has 32 MLAs in the state and can easily get the party nominee elected but the managers fear poaching of its MLAs by the BJP.
Also read: Haryana RS polls : Kartikeya Sharma's entry gives Maken an uphill task
This forced the Hooda camp to shift 30 MLAs to a resort in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, on Thursday to keep them safe under the watch of the Bhupesh Baghel government. In the meanwhile, Bishnoi’s statements that he would only listen to his conscience during the Rajya Sabha polls gave jitters to the party managers. Hence, the quick course correction in trying to pacify Bishnoi said the sources.
Interestingly, Bishnoi on Friday made statements urging party MLAs in neighboring Rajasthan to support the Rajya Sabha candidature of Randeep Surjewala, one of three Congress nominees from there.
The connection was obvious as recently Surjewala had publicly backed Bishnoi saying he would have been a good Haryana unit chief and should be accommodated at some level by the high command.
Interestingly, Bishnoi, who is miffed with the Hooda camp, has not issued any such statement in favor of Maken, the party’s official Rajya Sabha nominee from Haryana, saying that he would clear his position only after speaking to Rahul Gandhi, who is abroad and is expected to return only after June 5.
It may be mentioned that on the day the new team in Haryana had been announced, Bishnoi had urged his supporters to be calm till he got his answers from Rahul Gandhi. Bishnoi was considered one of the non-Jat candidates for the post of Haryana Congress chief but the high command finally settled for Udai Bhan after the Hooda camp strongly batted for the Dalit leader.
The crucial Rajya Sabha poll will be held on June 10 and the Haryana Congress MLAs are likely to return a day before, said sources. The situation has become tricky in Haryana due to the entry of BJP-JJP-backed media owner Kartikeya Sharma, who may affect the chances of the Congress nominee if some of the lawmakers from the grand old party cross vote.
Sharma is the son of former Congress leader Venod Sharma and a son-in-law of party leader Kuldeep Sharma. Both Venod and Kuldeep are incidentally close to the Leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
