Haryana Cong to hold one-day Chintan Shivir on Aug 1, Vivek Bansal’s name missing from invitee list
The Congress is set to organise a daylong Chintan Shivir on August 1, with eyebrows already being raised for an invite not having gone out yet to Vivek Bansal — the party’s Haryana in-charge — yet.
The party has already invited/invited several AICC leaders, former and incumbent Members of Parliament, former and incumbent MLAs and several senior leaders about the event that is to be held in Panchkula.
Party sources said that AICC general secretary, KC Venugopal, among other senior leaders, will adress the leaders and workers during the Chintan Shivir.
Party insiders said that “not inviting Bansal for the event to be organised by the party’s state unit is apparently linked to senior Congress leader Ajay Maken’s loss in the June 10 Rajya Sabha polls from two seats in Haryana”. BJP’s Krishan Panwar and BJP-JJP backed independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma had made it to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana, while Maken lost, despite the Congress having adequate numbers of MLAs in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.
When The Indian Express asked Bansal if not inviting him for the meet was linked with Maken’s loss in the Rajya Sabha polls, he said he would “not like to comment on it”.
Bansal, however, confirmed that he had so far not been invited. “I have not received the invitation although I have had discussions about this shivir with the PCC president and also helped decide the venue etc, about a week ago. I will talk to him about this [not getting an invite”.
Congress rebel MLA from Adampur, Kuldeep Bishnoi, had been removed from all key party posts by the Congress after he cross-voted against the party’s Rajya Sabha candidate Ajay Maken on June 10. Apart from Bishnoi, another Congress MLA’s vote was rejected allegedly due to the ballot paper being filled wrong.
Congress nominee Ajay Maken has challenged BJP-JJP backed Independent candidate Kartikeya Sharma’s election to the Rajya Sabha in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. At the time of filing his petition, Maken had stated that Congress MLA from Tosham, Kiran Choudhry’s vote had been rejected on June 10 for wrong filling up of the ballot paper. Reacting to Maken, Kiran Choudhry has said that she had sympathy for Maken since he had lost many elections but at the same time she did not require a certificate from anyone to prove her loyalty to the Congress, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi was aware of everything.
Haryana Congress chief, Udai Bhan, on Wednesday released a letter informing party leaders and workers about the August 1 Chintan Shivir. Some Congress leaders, who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha polls, were invited for the meet, but Vivek Bansal’s name was missing.
The August 1 meet, according to party leaders, shall be held to formulate the party’s strategy in the upcoming polls and also to work out the modalities for the Bharat Jodo Yatra that shall be held across Haryana from August 9-15 and cover 75 kilometers.
Through this yatra, the Congress plans to target the ruling BJP-JJP coalition in Haryana and the BJP government at the Centre on issues of price rise, unemployment, law and order, the Enforcement Directorate questioning senior Congress leaders.
Party leaders said that the party workers would also be informed about the Congress’ ideology during the meet.
Among the invitees for the August 1 meet are CLP leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, all four working presidents of HPCC — Ramkishan Gujjar, Jitendra Kumar Bhardwaj, Shruti Choudhry and Suresh Gupta — all All India Congress Working Committee members and office bearers of several Congress party wings, including Mahila Congress, Youth Congress, NSUI.
