Bhupinder Hooda's team has reportedly blamed Randeep Surjewala's camp.
After two back-to-back election defeats in Haryana, a divided house was not what the doctor ordered for the Congress, but with just over a year to go for the next polls, factionalism and internal strife are posing a significant challenge to the party's leadership.
These tensions came to the fore during the first meeting of the party under the newly appointed Congress in-charge of Haryana, Deepak Babaria, held last week. According to party insiders, the meeting saw a sharp clash between supporters of Bhupinder Singh Hooda and those of Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala, and Kiran Choudhary. Supporters of these leaders reportedly engaged in heated exchanges and even sloganeering.
Amidst these reports of factionalism, Uday Bhan, the President of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, acknowledged to NDTV on Friday that there are multiple contenders for the Chief Minister's post in Haryana. He asserted that the decision on the leadership will be made by the legislators and high command when the elections are held.
"It is natural that supporters of our senior leaders, many of whom are contenders for the Chief Minister's position, will raise slogans in their favour, applaud them, and lobby for them. However, this also signals that in the coming time, the Congress party is going to form a government in Haryana. There is no factionalism in Haryana Pradesh, the entire party is united... decisions are taken unanimously," he said.
Sources close to Mr Hooda, a two-time Chief Minister, said that he has made the Congress leadership aware of the reasons for the party's loss in the 2019 elections and raised questions about the distribution of tickets. He has been continuously saying that if the party had not listened to his opposing camp and given tickets to his suggested 22 candidates, they would have easily obtained a majority. In the 2019 elections, the Congress party was just 15 seats away from the majority, securing 31 seats in Haryana, while the BJP, which won 40 seats, formed the government with JJP.
Mr Hooda's team has reportedly blamed Randeep Surjewala's camp for the uproar and sloganeering at the two-day meeting of the Haryana Congress held in Chandigarh. Just like the Congress leadership supported Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in his rivalry with Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, sources said they Mr Surjewala may be sidelined in Haryana due to this ongoing internal strife.
Meanwhile, the party claims that under the leadership of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, these obstacles will be removed. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate told NDTV that the party organisation is being strengthened under their leadership and that the united party will contest and win the election in Haryana.
In the last three years, the Congress leadership has appointed three separate in-charges for Haryana. Due to factionalism, the party leadership has been unable to appoint local-level office-bearers in Haryana. The biggest challenge in front of the new Congress in-charge is currently the appointment of new district and block heads.