New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Senior Haryana leader Kuldeep Bishnoi met Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday, setting off speculations of a change in leadership in the party’s state unit.
Sources say that for the new President of Haryana unit, state in-charge Vivek Bansal has sent the names of four leaders – Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kuldeep Bishnoi, and Kiran Choudhary to the Congress President.
However, before the final decision, the Congress high command is continuously holding discussions with the party leaders.
In view of this, Gandhi discussed the situation in the state with Bishnoi, the Adampur MLA and a former MP.
According to sources, Bishnoi can be given an important responsibility in the state unit. While he is seen as 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 had agreed to step down from her post in a recent meeting with Gandhi.
A two-time Chief Minister, Hooda was also the state party chief from 1996 to 2001.
On the other hand, Selja can be accommodated in the upper house of parliament.
Sources indicated that the Congress high command has advised the leaders of the Haryana unit to face all the challenges unitedly.
In the 2019 state Assembly elections, the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 40 seats in the 90-member house, while Congress got only 31 seats, and Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) got 10 seats.
Due to this, both the BJP and the Congress tried to persuade the independents and the JJP for a post-poll alliance, but the former succeeded.
