Haryana Congress in Damage Control Mode After BJP Invites Selja, Surjewala

 New Delhi: After the BJP's "invite" to Congress MPs Kumari Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala to join the saffron fold, the Congress is in damage control mode in Haryana. Given that the ongoing internecine tussle is not good optics for the part, the Gandhis and the Congress high command are set to intervene to ensure that the party unity is visible in the days leading to the Assembly polls.

The trouble in the Congress started even before the tickets could be announced, with Selja and Surjewala demanding tickets for their own candidates. Some leaders also accused the state unit president Uday Bhan and AICC in-charge Deepak Babaria of running the state unit at the behest of the former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a charge that has been vehemently denied.

The party is at pains to project that all leaders are on board, but the ground situation tells another story.

Selja is miffed and has not been campaigning in the poll-bound state. She has not been to her present parliamentary constituency Sirsa and her earlier parliamentary constituency Ambala. She was not present even when Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge launched the party manifesto last week. Giving the BJP an opportunity to target the Congress and its leaders.

Stoking the fire, BJP leader and Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday reached out to Ms Selja stressing that she "deserves care and respect" and that the BJP is "ready to take her into the party fold".

Khattar said: "There is so much infighting there (in Haryana the Congress)... there is no clarity about their chief ministerial face. There is a fight between the father Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son Deepender Hooda. The father says he will become the CM, while the son says he will. Besides them, other leaders also have desires (for the CM post)."

"There is our Dalit sister... Sitting at home. A large section of people are today thinking about what they should do. Many people were upset with them (the Congress) and we brought them into the party fold. We are ready with an offer and if (Selja) comes, we are ready to induct her,” Khattar asserted.

Downplaying the BJP charge, Deepender Hooda said, "All the Congress leaders will fight the elections together and you will see everyone in the election campaign. There is no resentment against anyone. Everyone is united and standing in the election field.”

Senior observers Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken and Partap Singh Bajwa appointed by the Congress for the Haryana elections are assessing the situation and trying to manage the affairs.