Ashok Tanwar raises stink about ticket distribution in Haryana

New Delhi: The infighting within the Haryana Congress reached the doorstep of Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday. Former state unit chief Ashok Tanwar along with his supporters protested outside her residence alleging bribery in ticket distribution of the party in the upcoming Assembly elections in Haryana.   

Mr Tanwar is miffed at the ticket distribution in the state. He said that “those who have worked for the party in the last five years have been ignored in ticket distribution. The persons who have worked against the party were considered by former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Mr Tanwar further claimed that leadership of Congress in Haryana has been destroyed. “For five years, I gave my blood and sweat for Congress. The leadership in Haryana has been destroyed. We have been dedicated to the party. Why give tickets to those who have recently joined and criticised Congress earlier,” he said.

He also accused the party of selling Assembly seats to various candidates. “The ticket for Sohna Assembly seat was sold for `5 crore. We will fix the situation. If ticket distribution has been unfair then how will those who have been chosen win,” he asked,

The fight between Mr. Tanwar and Mr Hooda is not new. In the three elections that were held under the leadership of Mr. Tanwar the party lost miserably. Also, there were several complaints against Mr Tanwar in one of the meetings called by the general secretary incharge Ghulam Nabi Azad, where Mr Tanwar misbehaved, ensuring that the meeting came to an abrupt end.

Currently, out of the party’s 17 MLAs in the state, 15 are with M. Hooda. Seeing this, the high command had replaced Mr Tanwar with senior leader Kumari Selja and appointed Mr Hooda as the leader of the Congress legislative party.

This has caused severe discomfort to Mr. Tanwar who now wants that his supporters should be given tickets. If the Congress wants to put up a fight in the state it will soon have to get its act together as the state will be going to polls on October 21, along with Maharashtra, while the counting of votes will be done on October 24. The process of filing nominations for Haryana began on September 27. The last date of filing nominations is October 4 and the scrutiny will take place on October 5.