To unite camps, Cong takes K'taka model to Haryana

The Congress has decided to opt for the Karnataka model of campaigning to tackle factionalism in its Haryana unit.

On the lines of the bus yatra carried out in the southern state nearly two decades ago, the Congress will send all its warring Haryana leaders for a joint campaign across the state in a luxury bus.

The Haryana Congress is divided in rival factions led by former chief minister B S Hooda, state unit chief Ashok Tanwar, senior leader Kumari Selja, Kuldeep Bishnoi and Kiran Chaudary.

The intense rivalry among the factions has also created problems for the leadership in constituting organisational committees in the state unit.

“They are different before entering the bus, but when they come out of the bus after a few weeks, they are one. Twenty leaders become one. When they speak from one stage, when they eat from the same plate, they become one. So, we are working out this plan for a bus tour,” AICC general secretary in-charge of Haryana Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters here.

Azad virtually conceded the Lok Sabha elections in the state when he said that the bus yatra, details of which would be finalised in a day or two, was aimed at mainly the Assembly elections expected in October.

“We will try our best to make up for this delay, but fortunately the Parliament election in Haryana is much later and more so we will be laying a foundation for the Assembly elections,” Azad said to a question on delay in organising the yatra.

Azad recalled that he had organised similar bus yatras in Karnataka in 1999 and in Andhra Pradesh in 2003-04. The Congress had won the Assembly elections in both the states decisively.

The BJP ended the 10-year Congress rule in Haryana by winning a majority in the 2014 Assembly elections.

Lok Sabha elections in the state are scheduled to be held in the sixth phase on May 12.