Gurugram: The Congress party’s troubles in Haryana are far from over. A day after Dipak Babaria, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Haryana released four lists of office bearers for the upcoming municipal elections in the state, signs of discord have emerged within the party’s ranks. Varun Chaudhry, Congress MP from Ambala, wrote a letter to Babaria questioning the four lists and advised him that the Congress should focus on the long-delayed election of the Leader of the Legislative Party instead.
The Congress is yet to choose a Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, with former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s detractors pressuring the high command to go for a change.
Chaudhary also said the party’s priority should be building the organisational structure in Haryana, especially at the block level. “Rather than preparing four lists which have come to my notice through newspapers, in the interest of the INC please channelize your energies for the formation of organization which is due for a very long time,” he wrote.
He also said that the lists included names of people who were not active at the grassroots level, and some leaders who even contested elections against official Congress candidates.
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The Congress issued the list of district in-charges and co-incharges, conveners of municipal bodies, and North and South Zone conveners for the municipal elections on 28 January. Elections to the municipal bodies in Haryana are expected to be held in March.
The internal dissent adds to the woes of the Congress party which suffered a shock defeat in the October Assembly election which it had expected to win comfortably. Several Congress leaders attributed the party’s defeat to its lack of organisation in the state.
Chaudhry told ThePrint Wednesday that Congress workers wanted a party organisational structure that involved appointment of district and block level units and not ad-hoc lists just for municipal elections.
“Ask any Congress worker and you will find people are disheartened at the party’s delay in naming the Leader of the Legislature Party and the party’s units at the grassroots level. It has been more than a decade since we had district and block units of the party in Haryana,” Chaudhry said.
Asked who he was referring to when he said people who had contested against party candidates or had left the party figured in the list, Chaudhry said he didn’t want to name anyone, but everyone in the party knew who they were.
ThePrint reached Babaria for comment but the call went unanswered. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Chaudhry is the Member of Parliament from Ambala Lok Sabha seat in Haryana. He defeated Banto Kataria, wife of the late former Union minister Ratan Lal Kataria, by a margin of 49,036 votes. A lawyer by profession, Chaudhry has been involved in politics alongside his legal career for a long time. The Congress party first gave him a ticket in the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections from the Mullana seat.
Chaudhry’s father, Phool Chand Mullana, was the Haryana Congress chief from 2007 to 2014. Mullana, now 83, was elected as MLA four times: 1972, 1982, 1991 and 2005.
Chaudhry is considered close to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and he is the second leader from the Hooda camp to raise this issue. Before Chaudhary, Thanesar Congress MLA Ashok Arora raised the organisational structure issue, saying its absence was dangerous for the Congress and caused losses in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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