HARYANA CONGRESS-A DIVIDED HOUSE

Factionalism reared its head during the Haryana Congress’ two-day-long state party meeting, conducted on Saturday and Sunday in Chandigarh.

- VIPIN PARMAR 

Despite the presence of newly-appointed state in-charge Deepak Babaria, party leaders left no stone unturned to drag each other through the mud. On the second day of the meeting, Babaria held private meetings with different workers, MLAs—both current and former—and district-level leaders, to gauge the mood of the party regarding the organisation list. Babaria is slated to submit a report on the basis of these meetings to the party’s high command soon.

During the meeting, former parliamentarian Selja Kumari was met with fierce sloganeering as she took to the stage to address the gathering. Reacting to this, Kumari said sloganeering isn’t new and that. She also addressed Deepender Hooda’s resolution letter, from which five resolutions were passed during the meeting. Kumari said that party leaders had not been consulted, adding that the resolution was not of the Congress, since the party’s manifesto is drafted by the Congress Manifesto Committee. She also went on to call the delay in the formation of the organisation list a “big shortcoming” and expressed hope that Babaria would now build the organisation from the ground up.