Haryana Congress: Fight Between Jat And Non-Jat Leaders Comes Out In Open As Kumari Selja Launches Own Yatra To Counter Hooda's Campaign

Going against the party directive of not launching any other campaign in Haryana without prior approval, Congress leader Kumari Selja started 'Congress Sandesh Yatra’ from Hisar on Wednesday (17 January).

This exposes the widening rift within the Haryana Congress unit, which has been brewing for almost two years after former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda removed Selja from the state president post and appointed his loyalist Udai Bhan.

Selja's yatra comes after Haryana Congress president Udai Bhan and Leader of Opposition Hooda launched the ‘Ghar-Ghar Congress, Har Ghar Congress’ campaign on Monday.

A day after Hooda's campaign launch, Congress state in-charge Deepak Babaria urged all leaders to join this campaign and issued a directive that other programmes without prior approval would not be allowed.

However, defying this, Selja started her yatra. This is a manifestation of a struggle between Jat and non-Jat leaders in the Haryana Congress. Another prominent non-Jat leader Kuldeep Bishnoi had left Congress to join BJP.

With Selja in the middle, Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala and Kiran Choudhry can be seen on her sides on the posters of 'Congress Sandesh Yatra'. This trio is known as 'SRK' in Haryana politics.

According to Selja, this yatra is to deliver the message of Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, who is currently undertaking 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra'.

"We will reach out to all ten parliamentary constituencies in Haryana to spread Rahul ji's message. The BJP has failed on all fronts and every person wants to get rid of their 10-year rule. They want to capture Lord Ram now and hurt religious sentiments,” she was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

The second day of Selja-led yatra started from Chikanvas and Agroha. Three out of four working presidents of the Haryana Congress are accompanying Selja in this yatra. Gupta even called Selja the next CM of Haryana.