Cong's SC face in Haryana in bad mood

Former Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar on Wednesday raised the 'banner of revolt' ahead of the Assembly elections accusing certain party leaders of selling tickets for crores of rupees while protesting along with hundreds of his supporters outside 10 Janpath in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The developments unfolded just when the Congress Working Committee is finalising party nominees for the October 21 elections.

Tanwar took to the streets announcing what he said was a 'Satyagrah' on Gandhi Jayanti so that the voice of the people reaches Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Tanwar’s rant against his party is likely to hit the prospects of the beleaguered Congress.

It has also exposed the relentless infighting within the Congress.

Tanwar, a Scheduled Caste leader who was recently axed by the Congress high command purportedly at the behest of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, accused the screening committee of not doing enough to pick the right candidate.

While Tanwar did not directly name any leader, in line of fire was Hooda, his bête noire.

Tanwar’s tirade on Wednesday comes close on the heels of a similar tactic that was adopted by Hooda a few weeks ago.

At a public rally, along with scores of his supporters and MLAs, Hooda threw his weight around in an apparent bid to arm-twist the Congress high command to relent to his demands, among others, to oust Tanwar from the post of the state Congress chief.

Hooda then minced no words to say that the Congress was directionless and was no longer the same party it used to be.

Fearing a backlash, the Congress gave in and obliged Hooda— sources said that a majority of candidates finalised by the high command are Hooda's men.

Sensing a losing battle, Tanwar on Wednesday preferred to take Hooda’s way to coax the party into getting his pound of flesh.

For the Congress which is already in dire straits, Tanwar’s overt angst against his own party could not have come at the worst time.

Haryana has sizable Scheduled Caste population and the last thing the Congress would want to see is another untimely bout of wrangling among its top leaders.