Hooda gets his way; Tanwar out, Selja new Haryana chief

New Delhi: Bowing to the wishes of Jat strongman Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the Congress on Wednesday announced the removal of his bete noir Ashok Tanwar as the Pradesh Congress Committee chief and appointed the former chief minister as the leader of the Congress Legislative Party and chairman of the Campaign Management Committee.

Dalit leader Kumari Selja was announced as the next PCC chief to replace Mr Tanwar.

The appointment of Ms Selja, who is known to be close to interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi, came after weeks of negotations with Mr Hooda and can be seen as the best possible scenario given the faction-ridden dynamics of the Congress in Haryana.

The Congress in Haryana is split into factions led by, besides Mr Hooda and Mr Tanwar, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kumari Selja and Kiran Chowdhary.

However, it is the rivalry between Mr Hooda and Mr Tanwar which has embarrassed the party most with Congress general secretary in-charge of Haryana Ghulam Nabi Azad having had to walk out of a stock-taking meeting after the Lok Sabha poll debacle when supporters of both the leaders came to blows.

Mr Tanwar, a former president of the Indian Youth Congress, is seen to be an appointee of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. With the return of Sonia Gandhi at the helm of affairs in the party, the proverbial old-guard might have its way and the concerns of senior leaders like Mr Hooda might be taken into account.

Mr Hooda had fuelled rumours of a potential rift between the national and Haryana leadership of Congress when he slammed the Grand Old Party for “losing its way” over Article 370.

At a “Maha Privartan Rally” in Rohtak in early August, he had raised the bogey of revolt further when he lauded the BJP-led Centre’s decision to revoke Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. “I was born in a patriotic family, those who oppose the abrogation of Article 370, I want to tell them ‘usulon par jahan aanch aaye, vahan takrana zaruri hai, jo zinda hai to zinda dikhna zaruri hai’.”

Mr Hooda had apparenrtly stopped short of announcing formation of a new party at his massive show of strength rally at Rohtak after missives were sent to him that his demands for changes would be accommodated by the Congress high-command while re-organising the Haryana unit.

Questioned whether this rivalry could play a spoiler for the party in the coming Assembly polls, Mr Azad, who made the announcement at the AICC headquarters on Wednesday, said: “The past is past, we have to look at the future now”.

Haryana is scheduled to go to polls at the end of October.

Reacting to his appointment, Mr Hooda said: “The party has taken a decision, I respect it.”