Hooda’s dominance fuels power struggle

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 19

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is in the pink of health, politically, after the Congress’ farmers’ rally in New Delhi today, where the pink turban triumphed over the Gandhi cap. However, this victory for Hooda has intensified the power struggle within the state unit, setting the stage for a sharper divide in the party.

While the Hooda camp comprises 14 of the 15 party MLAs, the relatively new team of Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar and Congress Legislature Party leader Kiran Choudhry is still finding its feet.

The fact that the two camps don’t see eye to eye has been very pronounced on several occasions, including the run-up to the rally, where Hooda urged his supporters to wear pink ‘pagris’ to mark his presence, while Tanwar “prescribed” the Gandhi cap with the Congress colours.

The two even held separate meetings to review the rally arrangements. While Hooda’s meeting saw presence of all MLAs except Choudhry, many legislators stayed away from the meeting called by Tanwar and Choudhry since Hooda had been ignored and not invited.

With today’s gathering, Hooda has clearly signalled his strong presence in the state politics to the central leadership and indicated that he calls the shots irrespective of who occupies the positions in the state unit. Tanwar and Choudhry were chosen state president and CLP leader, respectively, despite Hooda pushing for “his” candidates and having the support of 14 MLAs.

After the rally, Hooda said it was unfortunate if Tanwar had been shouted down when he began his address at the rally, though he claimed ignorance about the matter.

Sources said the battle within the Congress was all set to intensify with Hooda already having announced his decision to launch a state-wide protest against the failures of the state BJP government. The protest is aimed at exposing the “anti-people” policies of the state government. Tanwar has already expressed his disapproval and made it clear that it is not a party programme but that of an individual.

The Tanwar-Choudhry team that led and organised anti-land ordinance protests in all districts of the state, it seems, is not going to sit back and watch Hooda take on the state government. The sources said with the first round of protests over the Centre’s ordinance, the Tanwar-Choudhry team have a plan up their sleeve to launch an “official” protest against the failings of the state government.

Meanwhile, unhappy with the way Hooda projected himself at today’s rally has not gone down well with his rival camp, which feels such brazen display of strength at the party rally will send wrong signals to the central leadership.

“The Congress is not a regional party where one leader portrays himself larger than life. This was a party rally and Hooda should not have followed a distinct colour code to. Also, booing down Tanwar was very unfortunate. The high command should take note of it and step in to end this,” said former minister Capt Ajay Yadav.