Congress leaders from Haryana meet Rahul Gandhi, suggest measures to strengthen party

By PTI

NEW DELHI: Congress leaders from Haryana met Rahul Gandhi here on Friday and deliberated on the party’s strategy going forward and ways to strengthen it.

The leaders discussed the challenges before the party in Haryana, especially after the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) victory in neighbouring Punjab, and how to address those.

Various leaders put forth their views before the former Congress chief, who gave a patient hearing to all of them. The meeting lasted for three hours, after which Gandhi met some leaders individually.

Gandhi also sought the views of the party leaders to strengthen the organisation and reach out to the grassroots level.

The leaders suggested several measures to strengthen the party and how to reach out to the people.

Some called upon the leadership for early decisions on revamping the organisation in the state, which has not been done for several years.

Among those who attended the meeting were AICC in charge of Haryana Vivek Bansal, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja, AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kuldeep Bishnoi, Kiran Chaudhary, Rajya Sabha MP Deepinder Singh Hooda and Captain Ajay Singh Yadav.

Selja later told reporters that there are issues that need to be addressed, including strengthening the party at the grassroots.

People expressed their views and Rahul Gandhi heard each of them, she said. Bhupinder Hooda said everybody kept their views on how the party can be strengthened.

He said there were no differences among the leaders and elections will be fought unitedly.

The meeting comes days after Rahul Gandhi met Bhupinder Hooda and exchanged views on the current political situation in the state.

Gandhi has been having several rounds of meeting with state leaders and had met party leaders from Gujarat earlier this week.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had also met party leaders from Himachal Pradesh last week.

Party leaders from Madhya Pradesh are also set to meet Sonia Gandhi soon.

Some of them have rushed to Delhi to meet her over the functioning of the Pradesh Congress Committee under Kamal Nath.

Some of them have expressed unhappiness in his leadership and differences are coming out in the open, sources said.