New Delhi, September 4: Former union minister Kumari Selja has replaced Ashok Tanwar as the president of Haryana Congress and former state chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will discharge twin responsibilities of CLP leader and chief of the party’s election management committee in the state, the party said on Wednesday.
In a long awaited decision, AICC General Secretary in charge of Haryana Ghulam Nabi Azad named Selja as the state chief and Hooda as CLP leader, replacing Kiran Choudhry.
Azad said: “Congress President Sonia Gandhi has given two responsibilities to BS Hooda. He will be CLP Chief and will also be the chairman of the Haryana election management committee. Selja and Hooda have both been entrusted with the task of building the Congress in Haryana and leading the election planning”.
The announcements mark a victory for the Hooda camp, which had been seeking the replacement of Tanwar and a decisive role for BS Hooda.
The announcement came after six months of back and forth on the issue between the Hooda loyalists and the party high command.
The future of Tanwar, who became Haryana Congress Chief in 2014, is unclear as Azad did not answer queries about where he would be accommodated and whether he would be brought to central AICC committee.
“Ashok Tanwar has been state chief for about six years now,” said Azad adding that everyone, including Kiran Choudhry and Tanwar, will have their own roles to play in the party.
On questions about what he had to say on Hooda recently remarking that the Congress had lost its way, Azad said: “That was in the past. Today’s committee is for the future. Let’s look forward now. Also, let bygones be bygones”.
Hooda has been at loggerheads with Tanwar for nearly three years. Legislators loyal to Hooda have repeatedly petitioned the former party president Rahul Gandhi for Tanwar’s replacement.
The Hooda camp wanted a defining role for the former chief minister. “BS Hooda should be more than happy today,” said a Congress source.
Haryana elections are due any time now.
