Cong’s first executive meet on July 5, knives out for Tanwar

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 28

Factionalism in the Haryana Congress is all set to play out on July 5, the day Kamal Nath, Congress general secretary in charge of the state, has convened the first meeting of the state party executive in Chandigarh.

Knives are already out for state Congress president Ashok Tanwar whose leadership is likely to come under attack in the meeting, the first to be held since the reconstitution of the state executive on August 17 last year.

Then Congress general secretary in charge Shakeel Ahmad had called the meeting of the state executive on September 3 last year, but it was cancelled after former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and 13 other Congress MLAs decided to boycott the meeting in protest against a decision to make office-bearers those who had worked against party candidates in the last Assembly elections.

Asked if things had changed since then, a Congress legislator told The Tribune today, “No. But we will attend the July 5 meeting and raise a range of concerns, including the presence of those who harmed the interests of Congress candidates in the elections. We will ask whether or not it is fair on the part of the state leadership to expect MLAs to sit with people who worked to defeat them.”

Tanwar confirmed the schedule of the meeting and said there was no issue regarding the reconstituted committee. “The committee has been in place for a year. The Congress leadership approved the committee and office-bearers after investigation. Now, we must work together to fight the BJP and INLD,” he said.

But several Congress MLAs remain unimpressed. One of them said Tanwar’s leadership would come under attack in the meeting.

“We want to ask why a general secretary has to come all the way to hold a meeting of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee every time. This is because the state leadership doesn’t inspire anyone. These questions will come up at the July 5 meeting,” said another Congress MLA.

After Tanwar was appointed the state party chief, the state unit was revamped on August 17, 2015. A full meeting of the 259-member state committee is yet to take place given the deep distrust between the Hooda camp and Tanwar.