JOIN US19 Haryana Congress MLAs seek leadership change, key role for Bhupinder Singh Hooda
Nineteen Congress MLAs from Haryana sought a "strong leadership" for the party in the state, favouring a key role for former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The suggestion was made by the opposition legislators at a meeting with the party’s Haryana incharge at the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) in New Delhi on Thursday, according to a participant.
The Congress has 31 MLAs in the state.
The MLAs also raised the issue that the party does not have district unit chiefs for the past eight years.
After the meeting, Bansal told reporters in Delhi that as the MLAs had not met due to the Covid pandemic for a long time, it was decided to take their feedback about the political situation in the state and seek suggestions about the party's organisational structure and upcoming panchayat polls.
A senior Haryana Congress leader, who attended the meeting, said the MLAs said there should be a "change of leadership at the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC)-level" to strengthen the party.
"It was conveyed that we need a strong leadership in the state and a powerful leader who will swing the prevailing political circumstances in the state to the party's advantage. For this, a key role for Mr Hooda was suggested," the leader said on Friday.
He said more MLAs would have attended the meeting but could not do so as they were unavailable, including one of them taking an anti-Covid vaccine on Thursday.
Reacting to the meeting of the legislators with Bansal, Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja on Friday sought to play it down, saying, "The MLAs can meet their party in-charge."
"I don't see any indiscipline if party legislators go and meet the party's state unit incharge and say something. It is their right. Bansal sahab has later clarified what the meeting was all about," she said.
"I never felt that the 19 MLAs were meeting the state unit incharge against the state unit president, nor has any such statement or indication come from anyone,” she said.
The developments in the Haryana Congress have come amid infighting in the Punjab unit of the party, where senior leader Navjot Singh Sidhu is at loggerheads with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.
In Haryana, the Congress is out of power since 2014.