CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Congress, which has been plagued by internal divisions, is poised for restructuring since the party has lacked a district-level organisation in the state for over eleven years.
Senior party leader Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit Chandigarh on June 4 to conduct an important meeting with state senior leaders to address various organisational issues within the state party.
As part of the party's ongoing organisation rejuvenation campaign (Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan), Rahul will be accompanied by 21 central observers who will hold meetings with senior party leaders at state and district levels. However, a meeting with the party MLAs is not on the agenda, said sources.
A senior party leader said Rahul would hold two meetings during his day-long visit, one focused on restructuring the party and the other to discuss the selection of district presidents and the formation of district-level committees. The campaign is seen by many party leaders as a long-overdue churning that should have taken place well before last year’s Assembly elections.
In the first meeting, 17 senior leaders, including former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state party chief Udai Bhan, working presidents Ram Kishan Gurjar, Jitender Bhardwaj and Suresh Gupta, general secretaries such as Kumar Selja (MP from Sirsa) and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala, former state unit chiefs, former Congress Legislature Party leaders, AICC office-bearers, and three all-India chairpersons, will give feedback on the reorganization and the political landscape in Haryana.
In the second meeting, Rahul will meet 22 AICC observers and 90 PCC observers.
It is not yet clear if all 37 party MLAs will be called for the meetings, though it is said that the state party affairs in-charge BK Hariprasad has been asked to separately reach out to legislators, former ministers, and other senior leaders. All party MLAs are reportedly eager to meet Rahul and have conveyed their sentiments to the top leadership.
Earlier, district presidents were appointed in consultation with the state unit president and the Congress Legislature Party leader. But under the new campaign, applications will be invited from leaders interested in becoming district chiefs. After consultations with senior district-level leaders, a panel from each district will be prepared and submitted to the party high command.
The entire process is expected to take a month, after which the district chiefs will be announced. This will be followed by the selection of a new state party president. As of now, Udai Bhan continues to hold the position.
Interestingly, it has been seven months since the Congress has failed to appoint its Legislature Party leader (CLP), who would serve as Leader of Opposition, despite recommendations from senior observers.