Congress is far from getting its act together before 2019 as a turf war between former CM Bhupinder Hooda and state party chief Ashok Tanwar is only getting worse.
New Delhi: For Rahul Gandhi as Congress president, Haryana is fast becoming the most difficult state to handle.
Two of the top Congress leaders in the state, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Haryana unit president Ashok Tanwar, have been engulfed in a battle for supremacy, which has at times turned violent, and even has a legal dimension to it.
The no-holds-barred turf war has put Rahul Gandhi in a fix as Haryana is one of the states where the Congress is hopeful of a revival ahead of the 2019 general election. But such has been the infighting that the party hasn’t had a block level or district level committee since 2014.
The state also doesn’t have an in-charge after former in-charge Kamal Nath became the president of the Madhya Pradesh Congress.
Tanwar, though, told ThePrint that the impasse over the local committees will end soon.
“We have submitted the list of committees to Congress president Rahul Gandhi,” said Tanwar. “Once the state gets an in-charge, the names will be announced.”
Yatra wars
Both Hooda and Tanwar have hit the road to demonstrate their clout in the state. The former chief minister, who announced his Jan Kranti Yatra in December last year, launched it on 25 February.
Tanwar followed suit a few days later — on cycle — launching his Haryana Bachao Parivartan Lao Cycle Yatra on 5 March.
Tanwar and Hooda have also been using the yatras to show the party’s cadre who is in charge in the state. While Tanwar doesn’t attack Hooda directly, the former chief minister publicly takes on the state president.
The warring leaders, however, say that the rallies are not against each other.
“There is no harm in doing rallies by anyone as the objective is the same — to defeat the BJP and empower the Congress,” said Tanwar. “Different leaders have different ways to increase the Congress’s presence in the state and everyone is okay with it.”
Hooda too has a similar answer for his yatra.
“The programme of my yatra was finalised much earlier and everyone was aware of it. It is better for the party that everyone is out on the field with a similar agenda.”
Rivalry through the years
Tanwar, a Dalit leader, was picked from obscurity by Gandhi and fielded at Sirsa, a stronghold of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), during the Lok Sabha elections of 2009.
He won by 40,000 votes and since then his political star has been on the rise.
After stints outside the state — he has served as the president of the Youth Congress and the National Student Union of India (NSUI) — Tanwar, Gandhi’s trusted aide, was appointed the Haryana Congress president in February 2014. Hooda was then the chief minister.
The two leaders began on a positive note. Before the assembly elections in October that year, it was Hooda who had a greater say in ticket distribution and campaigning. But it was when the party lost the elections and the BJP came to power for the first time on its own, that trouble began brewing between the two.
Stung by the loss, Hooda targeted Tanwar and demanded his removal from the party president’s post. He has never let up on it, bringing it up every time he meets Gandhi in Delhi. Hooda had wanted to be the state president.
Sources told ThePrint that Gandhi is willing to effect a change of leadership but he doesn’t want to replace Tanwar with Hooda. After the BJP captured the non-Jat votes in 2014, the party leadership is not willing to hand over the state to a Jat leader and instead is willing to bet on a Dalit.
“The Haryana Congress has already passed a resolution and has authorised Rahulji to nominate a new president,” said Hooda. “It’s up to him now to take a decision.”
But Tanwar’s supporters term it as pressure tactics and reject such claims.
“While Tanwarji has focused on increasing the Congress’s presence in the state, Hoodaji has only one agenda and that is to remove Tanwar,” said a senior Haryana Congress leader.
“The more Hoodaji has raised the issue, the more bitter it makes supporters of both leaders. Hooda is losing the credibility even among his supporters who question his intent.”
The party high-command is set to announce an in-charge for the state, but on presidentship it is yet to take a decision. On 12 May this year, Gandhi met Hooda at Taj Man Singh Hotel in Delhi in the presence of party organisation in-charge Ashok Gehlot to resolve the issues. However, no headway has been achieved.
An FIR and an inquiry
The two leaders are also embroiled in a police case on charges of assault and those under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
It stems from an incident on 6 October 2016, when Gandhi was coming to Delhi after completing his Deoria to Delhi Yatra.
Once Gandhi’s convoy reached near Pragati Maidan in Delhi, supporters of both Hooda and Tanwar began raising slogans in favour of their leaders. A scuffle broke out between the two groups and before long, iron and bamboo sticks made their way into the mob.
Tanwar received a head injury and was admitted to the ICU of RML Hospital in the Capital. His supporters lodged a police complaint naming Hooda, his son and party MP Deepender Hooda and their personal security officers.
Then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had formed a one-man enquiry committee with former home minister and senior Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde to investigate and submit a report. Shinde gave a clean chit to Hooda, saying Tanwar was caught in the crossfire, while trying to calm down both sides.
Initially no case was registered, but a Tanwar supporter, Kamaljit, approached the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, and the commission directed police to register an FIR. Subsequently, an FIR was registered at Tilak Marg police station in New Delhi under SC/ST Act in February 2017.
On 20 March this year when the Supreme Court issued directions to prevent misuse of SC/ST Act, it was Tanwar who first tweeted against the SC decision.
We strongly disagree on today's judgement by the Hon'ble SC on SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. This will dilute the very purpose of the Act & surely led to sharply increase in number of atrocities cases against SC/STs.Appeal to the SC for review https://t.co/wTfe3iXsNt
— Ashok Tanwar (@Tanwar_Indian) March 20, 2018
“In my case it just took four months for the police to register a case, just think about those who don’t have resources and are poor. The police inquiry is a never-ending process just to delay the case,” Tanwar said.
The police investigation is still on in the case. “We have recorded statements and examined the evidence. The case is still at the trial stage,” said Ajay Chaudhary, joint commissioner of Delhi Police.
Tanwar doesn’t want to talk about the case anymore. However, no one from Delhi Police has approached him for his version till date. “What kind of inquiry is this?” asks one of his supporters. “There were people present and video footage of the incident recorded by media. Despite this, nothing has happened.”
पढ़ें हिंदी में: हुड्डा-तंवर के आपसी मतभेद ने कर दिया है राहुल गाँधी की नाक में दम