Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 29
Buoyed by change in state leadership of the Congress effected in Madhya Pradesh by the party high command, Haryana’s leaders are making a beeline for Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the hope of ushering in a change in the state as well.
Three Congress leaders have already met Gandhi in the last one week while a few others, in a joint delegation, will call on him on Tuesday.
Sources said MLA Jai Tirath Dahiya, former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Rao Daan Singh and former MLA Dharampal Malik met the Congress president last week while a delegation of MLAs from the SC community — Geeta Bhukkal, Udai Bhan, Jaiveer Balmiki and Shakuntala Khatak — would meet him next.
In a divided state Congress, most of these leaders meeting the Congress president belong to the faction led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. With Assembly elections due in October 2019, they are learnt to be pressing for an urgent need of change in the state leadership and giving their feedback on goings-on in the state unit.
Though none of the MLAs was willing to disclose details of the one-on-one meetings and what transpired, they said the Congress president gave them a patient hearing on all matters concerning the party and major issues in the state.
“He was very receptive and assured us that the feedback was taken well. A leader’s job is to hear everybody and he conversed with an open mind,” said one of the leaders.
As state leaders take turns to meet the Congress president, state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar and Congress Legislature Party leader Kiran Choudhry, leading another faction in the party, have been meeting Gandhi regularly.
The sources said in the absence of an “involved” party general secretary, they had been meeting the Congress president separately to apprise him of the situation and goings-on in the organisation and the state.
The sources said after senior Congress leader Kamal Nath, general secretary for Haryana, was named Congress chief in Madhya Pradesh, the next general secretary would soon be announced for Haryana. The sources said a divided Congress needed the feud among various factions settled to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state and make an impact.
Various leaders of the party had been going their separate ways at present to showcase their strength and leadership without coming together for any joint programme. In the absence of an “involved” general secretary, the differences had widened with passage of time.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2HAABvm
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