Cong meet on Jind bypoll candidate ends in deadlock

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 6

The Congress meeting to discuss potential candidates for the January 28 Jind bypoll remained inconclusive today with a decision taken to meet again before January 10.

KC Venugopal, who has been named AICC in charge for the state to work out the election strategy, met all senior party leaders from Haryana one on one as well as together in the capital today.

Those who attended the meeting were former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his Lok Sabha MP son Deepender, state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, legislature party chief Kiran Choudhry, former minister Kumari Selja, senior state MLAs Randeep Surjewala and Kuldeep Bishnoi and Capt Ajay Yadav.

The seat has been held by INLD for two terms and a byelection was necessitated due to the demise of sitting MLA Harish Chand Middha.

Middha's son has since joined the BJP which is confident of a good performance in the area.

Congress’ former MLA from Jind Mange Ram Gupta is not in the party anymore. The hunt for a suitable nominee from the seat is on and this is the main challenge. Winning Jind byelection would be important for the Congress after BJP’s convincing municipal election win in the state recently.

Although the Congress is downplaying the MC losses saying it didn't contest on a symbol and was hence officially not in the fight, leaders privately acknowledge that wins and losses are more about perceptions than technicalities.

Tanwar today told The Tribune that winning Jind was priority and it was a critical election which will set the tone for 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Haryana.