Knives out in Congress after Haryana election debacle

OBC chairman Ajay Yadav said the party should introspect over its failure in the Ahirwal region where it won just one seat out of 11 seats.

Top leaders including Bhupinder Singh Hooda (above), Kumari Selja, Ajay Yadav and Randeep Surjewala did not share a stage even once, say Congress leaders, adding that it sent out the message that all was not well within the party. (PTI File)

Knives are out in the Congress after its debacle in the Haryana assembly elections. Former Haryana minister and party’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) chairman Ajay Yadav alleged there was poor coordination among the national and state leadership and that the party’s national general secretary, KC Venugopal remained unreachable.

Yadav said the party should introspect over its failure in the Ahirwal region where it won just one seat out of 11 seats.

“Ahirwal has no representation in the Congress Working Committee, party’s central election committee, All India Congress Committee or the Haryana Pradesh Congress committee. The party has appointed me as OBC national chairman which is of no use as it is toothless. We lost the election because there was no coordination with the state and national leadership,” he said.

He further said, “When the party’s state in-charge Deepak Babria was hospitalised, why was his duty not assigned to another leader. Party’s state chief Udai Bhan himself was contesting, that’s why he failed to take proper feedback and help the candidates in finalising the strategy.”

A former minister, Yadav said that the senior party leaders from AICC had asked him to make arrangements for Rahul Gandhi’s roadshow but the leader never visited his area.

“We finalised Kumari Selja’s programme in Rewari and she expressed unwillingness to come because of the unavailability of chopper. Our sitting MLA from Ferozepur Jhirka, Mamman Khan’s statement also went against us. He won by a huge margin because majority of voters were Muslim there but we lost due to his controversial remarks. The campaign was spearheaded by individuals and other leaders were missing. We lost due to polarisation and poor election management,” Yadav added.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/knives-out-in-congress-after-haryana-election-debacle-101728666291649.html

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