The Hindu : Sonia's Haryana `road show' from Feb. 28

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2004

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Sonia's Haryana `road show' from Feb. 28

By Rajesh Ahuja

CHANDIGARH, FEB.17. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, will be in Haryana on February 28 and 29 as part of her "road show" to interact with the people of the State against the backdrop of "infighting" within the State unit of the party.

While announcing Ms. Gandhi's tentative programme which would cover at least eight of the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State, the former Chief Minister and president of the Haryana unit of the Congress, Bhajan Lal, exuded confidence that her visit would boost the morale of partymen and the Congress would win all 10 Lok Sabha seats. According to the tentative programme, Ms. Gandhi is likely to visit Faridabad, Mahendergarh, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Hisar, Sirsa, Sonepat and Karnal parliamentary constituencies.

Interestingly, while Mr.Bhajan Lal underplayed `disunity' within the party and maintained that the elections would be fought unitedly, the Leader of the Opposition, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, too, used the same rhetoric to highlight that there was no infighting other than `difference of opinion.'

However, Mr.Hooda asserted that neither any "Lal'' nor any "corrupt'' person would become the Chief Minister if the Congress was voted to power in the Assembly elections. In what is believed to be a criticism of Mr.Bhajan Lal, he further asserted that nobody could claim the Chief Ministership as the issue would be decided by Ms.Gandhi and the elected MLAs. When asked to identify the "corrupt'' persons in the Congress, he was evasive and only mentioned that some wrong people may have entered the party.

Interestingly, Mr.Bhajan Lal clarified before mediapersons that he had never claimed at Bhiwani that he would become the next Chief Minister as reported in some newspapers. He explained that a Congress MLA had publicly expressed the sentiments of the public that he (Bhajan Lal ) should become the Chief Minister.

Mr.Bhajan Lal disclosed that he would personally not like to contest the Lok Sabha polls but would obey the "command'' of the party. He hinted that in case the high command approved, his younger son, Kuldeep Bishnoi, could contest the polls in his place. However, Mr.Hooda asserted that candidates would be selected by the High Command and not any individual.

Meanwhile, Mr.Hooda has demanded that the Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, immediately dissolve the State Assembly so that the Indian National Lok Dal regime could seek a fresh mandate along with the parliamentary elections. He charged that the Government had been exposed on all fronts and it had lost its right to rule since its tie-up with the BJP had collapsed. Haryana had landed into the debt trap, thanks to the anti-people policies of the Chautala Government, and there was utter lawlessness in the State.

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