Haryana: Candidates face challenges as Congress, BJP riddled with factionalism

Tribune News Service

Sunit Dhawan

Rohtak, May 9

The candidates of both the BJP and Congress are having a tough time in getting the support of leaders owing allegiance to different groups, camps and factions within their own parties.

Now, common in BJP too

Till recently, factionalism used to be associated mainly with the Congress, while the BJP was considered a disciplined party. However, differences among BJP leaders are also coming to the fore. Political observers

While the Congress leadership has been facing the charge of rampant factionalism for a long time, the state party organisation of the BJP also seems to be divided into groups. Owing to the prevalence of infighting within the parties, clashes among workers supporting different leaders have been witnessed during campaigning.

In the Congress, the leaders of the camps of former Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Selja-Randeep-Kiran (SRK) group generally stay away from each other’s campaign.

The faction of former Union minister Birender Singh and his son Brijendra seems to be inching closer to the SRK group, going by the thumb rule that those having a common rival come together. Curiously, there are sub-groups within the same factions, as was witnessed during a group clash between the supporters of two Congress leaders of the Hooda faction at the inaugural ceremony of an election office of the party at Loharu town in Bhiwani district recently.

As per political observers, groupism is surfacing in the BJP as well, especially among leaders who were earlier in the Congress or other parties. For instance, stalwart Ahirwal leader and Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh, who did not attend the filing of the nomination papers by Dharambir Singh, BJP candidate from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh constituency, had to clarify that he was supporting Dharambir only.

Factionalism is also being witnessed in the Congress and BJP in other constituencies as well.

“Till recently, factionalism used to be associated mainly with the Congress, while the BJP was considered a disciplined party. However, differences among the BJP leaders are also coming to the fore in these elections,” say observers.

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