Cong still battling dissidence

CHANDIGARH: Even as other politicalparties in Haryana are all set to kick off their election campaign with fullforce, the Congress is still busy pacifying its supporters and party men who areagitated over the nomination of some of the candidates for the Lok Sabhaelections, the polling for which is due to be held on May 10.Theparty is facing the biggest threat of internal sabotage in Karnal parliamentaryconstituency where the supporters of Kuldeep Sharma, who was one of theaspirants for the ticket for this seat, are in no mood to accept the candidatureof Arvind Sharma, who is being branded as an outsider. Kuldeep, whohas entered the fray as an Independent, is becoming a real threat to theCongress as there is a strong rumour that the ruling Indian National Lok Dal(INLD) may withdraw from the contest and extend support to him. INLD leaders,however, deny it.The party is facing a similar situation inFaridabad and Sirsa. In Faridabd, two senior Mulsim leaders have left the partyin protest against the candidature of Avtar Singh Bhadana, who was elected toLok Sabha from Meerut in the last elections. These leaders wantedparty high command to give ticket to some Muslim candidate as there is a fairlylarge number of Muslim voters in the Mewat segment of theconstituency.In Sirsa too, Congress workers are upset over KumariSelja''s decision to contest from Ambala reserve constituency this time.Consequently, the partyleadership had to nominate Atma Singh Gill who is not as well-known among theelectorate as was Selja. In fact, a section of Congressmen in Ambala are alsosore over Selja''s candidature.In Hisar constituency, though YouthCongress president Randeep Singh Surjewala, who was denied the ticket, hasrelented and has publically announced his wholehearted support to partycandidate Jai Parkash, his supporters continue to bedisheartened.Besides, the faction-ridden leadership of the party isfinding it difficult to put up a united front for campaign purposes.It will be difficult even for state unit president and former chiefminister Bhajan Lal to devote much time to electioneering in otherconstituencies as he will have to devote most of his time to Bhiwani where hisson is locked in a very tough fight against chief minister Om Prakash Chautala''sson Ajay Singh and Haryana Vikas Party supremo and former chief minister BansiLal''s son Surinder Singh.This contest is crucial for him in thesense that only after winning it he will be able to effectively project himselfas the chief ministerial candidate during the assembly elections scheduled to beheld in March next year.