Seeking to balance social equations and various groups in faction-ridden state unit, Congress today named senior leader Ajay Yadav, an OBC face, the chairman of its campaign committee while Naveen Jindal was named Chairman of publicity committee for assembly poll-bound Haryana.
The party has already made it clear that being Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda will be the face of the party for the elections that will take place before October-end.
Senior party leader Kiran Chaudhary, a known detractor of Chief Minister Hooda, who is also a Jat leader, has been made Co-Chairperson of the campaign committee whose convener is Dilu Ram Baziagar, a Dalit leader.
Ajay Yadav had quit Hooda ministry sometime back but was persuaded by the party leadership to withdraw his resignation.
The party felt the six-time MLA and OBC leader's quittiing the party at a time when a number of party leaders resigned slamming the style of functioning of the Chief Minister could have sent a wrong signal ahead of the elections.
Chief Minister Hooda, PCC Chief Ashok Tanwar, former union minister Kumari Selja (both Tanwar and Selja are Dalit leaders), former PCC Chief Phool Chand Mullana, Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma (a Brahmin), lone party MP in Lok Sabha from Haryana Deepender Singh Hooda, Shadi Lal Batra, Shruti Chaudhary, AICC spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala and Jindal were among the 40 members of Haryana Pradesh Election Campaign Committee announced today.
Kiran Chaudhary is the daughter in-law of late Haryana Chief Miniter Bansi Lal. While she has been made a Co-Chairperson, her daugher Shruti has been made a member of the campaign committee.
Selja has been a known detractor of the Chief Minister and had some time back publicly said that Hooda should at least offer to resigned owing moral responsibility for the defeat of Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.
While Deepender Hooda, son of the Chief Minister, has been represented in both the committees, known detractors of Bhupinder Singh Hooda have also been accommodated.
In the last assembly elections, Venod Sharma was the campaign committee chief of the party when Hooda was the face of the elections. Sharma is now out of Congress and has formed Jan Chetna Party.
The Haryana Pradesh Publicity and Publication Committee headed by Jindal has Ajay Sharma, another Brahmin leader, as convenor and seven other members including Deepender Hooda.
Haryana is first among the four states where assembly elections are going to be held this year.
A number of Congress leaders in Haryana have left the party and joined BJP and INLD in the last few months, the notable being Chaudhary Birender Singh and Avtar Singh Bhadana. Rao Inderjit Singh had left the party before the Lok Sabha elections and is a now BJP minister in Narendra Modi's cabinet.
BJP and Haryana Janhit Congress are fighting the assembly polls in alliance while Haryana's main opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) is contesting the coming polls in alliance with Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
The state has 90 assembly seats and 10 Lok Sabha seats of which the BJP won seven, INLD two and Congress one in the last polls. While INLD has already released two lists of candidates, Congress is beginning the exercise to finalize nominations next week.
(Published 23 August 2014, 15:33 IST)
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