Gurugram: The Congress party believes in taking all 36 biradaris (communities, in this case, living in Haryana) along, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Kumari Selja told ThePrint Thursday, adding that no one is above the party.
Selja’s remarks came a day after she publicly rebuffed party colleague and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s idea of four deputy CMs, including one from the Brahmin community, if the Congress is voted to power in the state next year.
Her remarks were aimed at announcements Hooda made Sunday at a programme organised by the Brahmin community in Rohtak where he said the Congress will appoint a deputy CM from the community, restore job quota for Brahmins under the ‘economically backward sections’ (EBS) category and set up a ‘Brahmin Commission’ if voted to power.
आज रोहतक में 'समस्त ब्राह्मण समाज लोकसभा क्षेत्र रोहतक' द्वारा आयोजित सम्मान समारोह में। pic.twitter.com/0aSKr6JYfg
— Bhupinder S Hooda (@BhupinderShooda) October 8, 2023
Asked about Hooda’s proclamation, Selja had said at a press conference in Delhi Wednesday that she was not aware of any such “formula”.
“When was such a formula made within the Congress? Who announced this formula and where? I don’t know anything about it,” she said.
LIVE: Congress party briefing by @Kumari_Selja Ji at AICC HQ. https://t.co/24zTRfhmoE
— Congress (@INCIndia) October 11, 2023
The former Haryana Congress president, who is currently a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), also said that the party neither declares its CM or deputy CM prospects in advance nor authorises anyone to make any announcements in this regard.
She also said cadres were unhappy with organisational appointments made by Rahul Gandhi confidant Deepak Babaria — who was made the party’s in-charge of Haryana this June — and that the issue has been brought to the notice of senior party leaders.
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‘Reiterated 2019 promise’: Hooda
Asked about her remarks at the press conference the previous day, Selja told ThePrint Thursday that no one in the Congress is supposed to consider themselves over and above the party.
“Congress is a party that believes in taking all the 36 biradaris along. When you say you will have four deputy CMs of four particular communities, it also means that you have already decided which community will get the CM’s post; what about the others,” she asked.
Selja added, “This doesn’t work in the way the Congress works. The party high command takes a decision on all these issues at the time of elections.”
Contradicting Hooda’s claims, she maintained that even in 2019, the party did not make any such decision at the organisational level.
“When assembly polls were held in Haryana in October 2019, I was the state Congress president. I made no such decision. Nor did the party’s central leadership take any such decision during my term as the state (Congress) president,” she said.
On Selja’s reaction to his announcements, Hooda told ThePrint Thursday that what he said was no revelation. “If you search the archives, you will find that the Congress made a decision at the time of assembly polls in 2019 that the state will have four deputy CMs belonging to different castes: Brahmins, Scheduled Castes (SCs), Backward Classes and Jats if the party came to power. My announcement in Rohtak Sunday was just a reiteration of what had already been promised to the people of Haryana in 2019,” he said.
Hooda, who is currently Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, also maintained that he never declared who the party will pick as chief minister if it is voted to power in the state next year.
His announcements Sunday, however, are being seen as a bid to woo Haryana’s Brahmin voters, who have been asserting themselves of late.
Haryana’s next chief minister should be a Brahmin, Arvind Sharma, the BJP MP from Rohtak, had decreed in the presence of CM Manohar Lal Khattar during the ‘Bhagwan Parshuram Mahakumbh’ organised by the state government last December. Sharma also claimed that Brahmins account for 12 percent of the state’s total population, as against most estimates that put the figure at 5-6 percent.
The Hooda-led Congress government had in 2013 introduced 10 percent reservation in government jobs to economically backward sections, including Brahmins and Rajputs. The quota was frozen by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2016. According to Hooda, the BJP government in the state “withdrew this (quota) in 2019”.
‘Gave due representation’: Babaria
Speaking to ThePrint Thursday, Selja also elaborated on what she said about the Congress party’s Haryana in-charge Deepak Babaria at the press conference the previous day.
Terming the organisational revamp of the Haryana Congress overseen by Babaria a “one-sided” exercise, Selja said party workers have always opposed it. “One just has to look at the lists of district in-charges and observers appointed for the exercise. Barring three or four, all those nominated are from one group,” she alleged, without taking any names.
She also said that party workers were not convinced with the neutrality of “neutral observers”.
“We have brought all these facts to the notice of the party high command,” she said.
Asked to comment, Babaria told ThePrint Thursday that he ensured adequate representation for all leaders of the Haryana Congress when nominating district in-charges and observers. “As far as Selja ji is concerned, her supporters from the areas she represented in the Lok Sabha were given due representation in the lists,” he maintained.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)