The absence of some senior party leaders at the day-long Chintan Shivir held in Panchkula to prepare a roadmap to dethrone the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2024 assembly elections has left the Congress party in high command worried.
The absence of some senior party leaders at the day-long Chintan Shivir held in Panchkula to prepare a roadmap to dethrone the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2024 assembly elections has left the Congress party in high command worried.
The ‘Chintan Shivir’ was called by Haryana Congress to discuss the strategy to reach out to people over several ‘burning issues’, including inflation, unemployment, law and order.
Senior leaders including Kumari Sailaja, Randeep Surjewala, Kiran Choudhary, besides the working president and party affairs in-charge, Vivek Bansal, missed the Shivir.
However, Haryana Congress chief, Uday Bhan, justified their absence by saying that they were busy in public meetings.
“Kiran Chaudhary and Shruti Choudhary could not attend the event due to some programmes in their constituency in Bhiwani ,” Bhan said, while adding that Randeep Suryavala was out of the country.\
The leaders belonging to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda faction had no concrete answer as to why these leaders were absent. The Shivir was dominated by the leaders close to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda faction.
When questioned whether efforts will be made to bring back the leaders who were miffed with the high command over certain issues, two senior party leaders, Geeta Bhukkal and Rao Daan Singh, said that the “efforts were already on”.
All issues can be settled at the party level. If Kuldeep Bishnoi wants to say something he is welcome to share his thoughts,” Geeta Bhukkal said.
Former chief minister and Leader of Opposition, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, also denied factionalism in the party.
“Those who could not attend the Shivir were busy. Do you ask the BJP leaders who attended and who were from their meetings,” Hooda said, while adding that this was a party’s event. It depends on the leaders whether or not to attend the same.
KULDEEP BISHNOI SET TO JOIN BJP
Disgruntled Congress leader and Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi has announced that he will formally quit his assembly membership on Wednesday. He is expected to join the BJP in the presence of chief minister Manohar Lal on Thursday.
Kuldeep Bishnoi was miffed with the party high command as he was denied the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief’s post. Rahul Gandhi also did not meet him which added fuel to the fire.
Kuldeep Bishnoi had met BJP chief JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah on July 10. Sources close to Kuldeep Bishnoi say that he is keen to get a BJP ticket for his son Bhavya Bishnoi from Adampur and a Lok Sabha ticket for himself from Hisar.
