A change in Haryana state unit of the Congress is expecting after the two party leaders of the state Congress met senior leadership of the All India Congress Committee in Delhi. The two leaders are claimant of top post.
The leaders who are pursuing for the change are two times ex-Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi. Hooda met senior party leaders on Saturday while on Sunday Bishnoi met Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Hooda is a strong Jat leader in the state while Kuldeep belongs to Bishnoi community. Now the party has to make choice between a Jat and non-Jat leader. At present Kumari Selja is State unit president
Hooda at present is Congress Legislative Party leader in Haryana Assembly while Bishnoi is a senior MLA.
If Hooda is appointed president of the Haryana unit of the party, he would like to have his confidential MLA as legislative party leader in the assembly.
The sources said that the party did not want the two posts to go to a single community and in that case Kuldeep Bishnoi might become the Leader of Opposition in the state legislature.
According to the sources, Bishnoi can be given an important responsibility in the state unit. While he is seen as a contender to head the party in the state, he is more likely to replace Hooda as the Leader of the Opposition. Hooda is being tipped as the next Haryana Congress president in place of Kumari Selja, who may be nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
Hooda was the state party chief from 1996 to 2001.
Sources said when these leaders were in Delhi the Congress high command has advised them to face all the challenges unitedly.
Haryana has a total 90 members assembly house. In the last elections held in 2019 the BJP had won 40 seats and its alliance Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) led by Dushyant Chautala got 10 while Congress had won 31 seats.
Both the BJP and the Congress had tried to persuade the independent MLA and the JJP. But the BJP formed the government with the support of independent MLAs and the JJP.