Haryana Diary: Poster war in Congress

Karnal: Ahead of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s ‘Jan Milan programme’ on Sunday evening, a poster war had been on for the previous two days among his supporters, who are among the ticket aspirants for different elections — civic bodies, Lok Sabha and Assembly. Posters and banners flooded roads and streets of the city, especially the area adjacent to the venue. Some leaders had even put up such posters in their respective wards. Senior party leaders say the number of posters and banners shows the excitement among the party leaders and workers.

Cong factionalism to the fore

Ambala: Intense factionalism among Congress leaders came to the fore during a recent meeting at Congress Bhawan, where the AICC coordinator had come to take feedback from party workers. While the party workers were clearly given a free hand to show loyalty towards their leader and strength against the rival camp, the indiscipline left the AICC coordinator and the PCC district in-charge miffed and disappointed. While the Congress leaders term the indiscipline of the workers as ‘excitement’, the goings-on at the meeting have given BJP leaders another point to take a dig at faction-ridden Congress.

2 JJP MLAs skip national meet

Hisar: The JJP MLA from Narnaund Assembly segment, Ram Kumar Gautam, didn’t attend the meeting of the party’s national executive held in Hisar on Sunday. Gautam had shared the stage with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar three days ago. He had expressed his displeasure with the JJP leadership and publicly targeted his party leaders. Besides Gautam, Ramniwas Surjekhera, JJP MLA from Narwana Assembly segment in Jind district, stayed away from the meeting. These two MLAs are known detractors of the party. But the other eight MLAs were present in the meeting. The JJP had won 10 seats in 2019 Assembly polls.

‘Graft’ in parks an issue again

Panipat: The alleged corruption in the construction of parks in the city has again come to the fore as the tenure of the present Municipal Corporation House is about to end within four months. It’s not a new issue in the ‘Textile City’. It was also highlighted before the 2019 polls and ruling party MLA (Urban) has again raised this issue. At a programme held by a resident welfare association (RWA), MLA Pramod Vij said corruption was rampant in the construction of several parks in the city. Details have been sent to the CM and Vigilance Department to inquire into the matter, he said.

Curiosity over PM’s visit

Rewari: Local residents are curious about September 23 not because the day is marked as the martyrdom day of freedom fighter Rao Tularam, but over speculation over whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the much-awaited AIIMS project that day. Though no such programme has so far been announced officially, the district administration has already begun preparations for it. The date September 23 caught public attention when Union Minister Rao Inderjit met the PM last month and urged him to lay the foundation of the AIIMS project, which was announced by him in February 2019. Rao’s supporters claim that the PM will visit Rewari on September 23.

Contributed by Nitish Sharma, Deepender Deswal, Mukesh Tandon, Ravinder Saini and Praveen Arora.