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Haryana: Congress needs to rethink appointment of new state chief, says Ajay Yadav
Taking to X, Yadav, an Ahir leader said, “The Congress needs to introspect about the falling graph of party in Haryana. Rahul Gandhi Ji wanted a Haryana Congress president who has a clean image and was young but this decision was reversed. The grassroots party cadre’s morale is at its lowest.”
A day after the Congress appointed former minister Rao Narender Singh as the new president of Haryana unit, senior leader and former minister Captain Ajay Yadav hit out at the party leadership and urged it to introspect its decision. The Congress had replaced former Hodal MLA Udan Bhan, a dalit leader with Rao Narender Singh.
Taking to X, Yadav, an Ahir leader said, “The Congress needs to introspect about the falling graph of party in Haryana. Rahul Gandhi Ji wanted a Haryana Congress president who has a clean image and was young but this decision was reversed. The grassroots party cadre’s morale is at its lowest.”
As per Congress sources, Ajay Yadav, a former six-time MLA was expecting the state Congress president post either for him or his son Chiranjeev Rao and he was upset after the party decided to appoint former Narnaul MLA Rao Narender Singh for the state chief post.
In April this year, Congress removed Yadav from the post of chairman of the AICC OBC department and replaced him with Anil Jaihind. Last year on October 17, Yadav announced to leave the party and resigned as chairman of AICC’s OBC department. Two days later, he took a U-turn and said he was “Congressman by birth” and would remain “Congressman till his last breath”.
A day earlier, the Congress had appointed former minister, Rao Narender Singh, an Ahir and backward class (BC) leader as state chief and the decision was seen as a balancing act to attract the BCs in the state. With a BC leader, Nayab Singh Saini of the BJP at the helm as chief minister, the Congress has made an attempt to make inroads in the 33% backward class vote-bank including about 5% Ahirs who are mostly concentrated in Mahendergarh, Rewari, Gurgaon and Bhiwani districts and often feel left out.
There are at least 11 southern Haryana assembly constituencies where Ahirs decide the poll outcome. The BJP won 10 of those 11 assembly constituencies in 2024, won 8 in 2019 assembly elections and all of the 11 in 2014 assembly polls.
The newly appointed state Congress chief, Rao Narender Singh, who replaces Udai Bhan, a dalit leader, is known for his proximity to Hooda. In 2009 assembly elections, Rao Narender Singh contested and won on the symbol of Kuldeep Bishnoi’s Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) but ditched Bishnoi to switch sides along with other HJC MLAs and merged the HJC with the Congress. He was rewarded with a ministerial berth by Hooda. Rao Narender Singh lost the 2024 assembly election from Narnaul assembly constituency by about 17,000 votes.
