After Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi sets eyes on Haryana for Congress revamp

After a mammoth organisational revamp exercise in “pilot state” Gujarat, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has set his eyes on rebuilding the party’s organisation in faction-ridden Haryana and will be meeting the state leaders on June 4, though a meeting with the party legislators is not on the agenda.

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Confirming the development, the party general secretary in charge of Haryana, BK Hariprasad, said Rahul would hold two meetings for the restructuring of the party when he arrives in the state for a day-long visit under the Sangathan Srujan Abhiyan.

There has been no district-level organisation in Haryana for the past over 11 years and the campaign is being seen by Congress leaders as the long overdue churning that should have taken place well before the 2024 Assembly polls.

“The first meeting will be with 17 senior leaders, including former chief minister, former PCC president, former Congress Legislature Party leaders, AICC office-bearers and three all-India chairpersons. They will give feedback on the reorganisation of the party and also the politics on the ground. This will be followed by a second meeting to be held with 22 AICC observers and 90 PCC observers. This will focus on conveying how the party expects them to go about the panel selection for district chiefs,” he said, adding that the names would be out tomorrow.

Earlier, the party used to appoint the district presidents in consultation with the state chief and the leader of the Congress Legislature Party. However, under the present campaign, the observers will invite applications from leaders keen on the post of district chief, hold consultations in the field with senior leaders of the respective districts, prepare a panel from each district and submit it to the party high command.

The entire process is expected to take a month’s time, after which the district chiefs will be announced and this will be followed up with the selection of a state chief as well. Seven months after winning 37 seats in the Assembly elections and missing forming the government, something the party was expecting, the Congress has been unable to pick a Leader of Opposition, despite senior observers making their recommendations. Also, contrary to the expectations of party leaders, Udai Bhan has managed to survive as the state chief.

MLAs, too, are keen to meet Rahul and have conveyed their sentiments to the party top brass. “We will be happy even if Rahul simply addresses us. There should be a meeting since some MLAs claim that the party leadership did not care to meet them post-election, and there are others who are attending programmes of the Chief Minister,” an MLA said, adding that some senior leaders of the party will take up the issue with Hariprasad.

However, the Haryana general secretary said those MLAs keen to meet the Congress leader would have to seek an appointment since he would be in the state only to deliberate on an organisational overhaul.

No restructuring for past 11 years

There has been no district-level organisation in Haryana for the past over 11 years. The campaign is being seen by Congress leaders as the long overdue churning that should have taken place well before the 2024 Assembly polls.