lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Mar 20, 2019 14:03 IST

Top Haryana Congress leaders who were on Monday drafted in the state coordination committee headed by former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will embark on a series of roadshows in the state from March 26 as a precursor to the Lok Sabha polls.

Filing of nominations for the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana will start from April 16 and polling would be held on May 12. The roadshow schedule was decided during a meeting of the state coordination committee in New Delhi on Tuesday. All members of the coordination committee except former MP Kuldeep Bishnoi were present during the meeting.

Congress sources said party leaders would be ferried in a bus for the roadshow starting from Faridabad on March 26 and culminating at Jhajjar on March 30. AICC in-charge for Haryana, Ghulam Nabi Azad, had said the model to get all the leaders in a bus and take them around in the state was implemented in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka with good results.

“The idea is to bring cohesion in the faction-ridden party leadership and convey it to the public,” a party leader said.

The first roadshow starting on February 26 from Faridabad will end at Narnaul. The show on next day will start from Narnaul and culminate at Sirsa. On February 28, the leaders will begin from Sirsa and end the roadshow at Kurukshetra. This will be followed by a similar event on February 29, which would begin from Kurukshetra and end at Karnal. The last leg of the roadshow will start from Karnal and end at Jhajjar on February 30.

Hooda is the chairman of the committee, while state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar and senior party leaders Kumari Selja, Kiran Choudhary, Randeep Surjewala, Mahender Pratap Singh, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, Deepender Hooda, Naveen Jindal, Kuldeep Sharma Jaivir Balmiki, Kailasho Saini Anil Thakkar Jaipal Singh Lali and Kuldeep Bishnoi are its members.

Will sweep all 10 seats: Tanwar

The Congress party in Haryana will win all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the ensuing parliamentary elections, said party’s state unit chief Ashok Tanwar, and termed AAP’s overtures for an alliance as “one-sided show of love.”

“We have also devised a plan to motivate our workers and connect with the people,” he said, adding that the electoral blueprint will be implemented in the coming days across the state.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had won only one seat (Rohtak), while the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) had secured two. The BJP had won seven Lok Sabha seats.

Ruling out the possibility of any tie-up with the AAP in Haryana, Tanwar said, “The Congress is strong enough in Haryana. We will contribute to make Rahul Gandhi the prime minister.”

(with inputs from agency)