State Cong chief refuses to resign despite party loss

Chandigarh: The Congress in Haryana is simply disorientated by the drubbing it got in parliamentary elections and has failed to reorganise ahead of the Assembly elections due in October. The state Congress president Ashok Tanwar has refused to resign even after many senior leaders of the state Congress called for his ouster.

Despite many demands from the state leaders to fix accountability in view of the party’s performance in the state, Mr Tanwar has defied not only the state leadership but even the AICC by saying that he would not resign over the party’s performance in Haryana.

He was asked if he would follow former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s example and resign from his position, a defiant Tanwar said, “I am still working that is why I have formed an election planning and management committee to plan for the upcoming state Assembly elections.”

The Congress lost all 10 seats in Haryana. The defeat came a few months before the state heads into Assembly elections, and came as an embarrassment to the Congress, which has 17 seats in the current Assembly.

Mr Tanwar, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president, himself lost Sirsa to Sunita Duggal.

“I have spoken to All India Congress Committee (AICC) leadership on the issue. I have talked about it openly with party leadership. The mandate from the AICC is to do work. Whatever has to be said and offered, I have done that,” he said.

However, Mr Tanwar got a rebuff by the AICC for appointing an election planning committee for the state. The party’s central leadership termed the panel invalid.

The All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge for Haryana, Ghulam Nabi Azad, had said Mr Tanwar had no authority to unilaterally announce any committee related to the state Assembly elections.

“This committee is not valid since no permission has been taken from the AICC to set it up. Moreover, only the AICC is authorised to constitute state-level committees ahead of any Assembly election,” Mr Azad said today.

The AICC is currently the supreme body of the Congress in the absence of a national president. Ever since Rahul Gandhi resigned as Congress chief, all official orders and appointments are being made in the name of AICC and under the signature of AICC general secretary in charge of organisation, K.C. Venugopal.

Mr Tanwar had invited former state CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Congress Legislative Party leader Kiran Choudhry, former Union minister Kumari Selja, and state seniors Randeep Surjewala and Kuldeep Bishnoi to be part of the committee. However, none of these leaders was present in the meeting.

The party insiders say that infighting going to  affect the party in the Assembly elections in the state. There are also strong rumours doing the rounds in the party circles that a dominant group can float a new party in the coming days.