After 11 years, Congress names district chiefs

The Congress today released a list of 32 district presidents, with many districts having separate presidents for urban and rural areas. The list is heavily dominated by former CM Bhupinder Hooda loyalists, comprising 25 individuals.

Sirsa MP and former minister Kumari Selja has her loyalists in Sirsa (Santosh Beniwal), Ambala Cantonment (Parvinder Pari), Ambala City (Pawan Aggarwal), Hisar rural (Brij Lal Khoval) and Faridabad (Baljeet Kaushik).

There are 10 Backward Castes, six Jats, five SCs, three Baniyas, two Brahmins, two Rajputs, two Punjabis, one Muslim and one Jat Sikh in the list.

All India Congress Committee General Secretary KC Venugopal had released the list today. Explaining the appointment process, he said, “These appointments are made as part of the Sanghathan Srijan Ahiyan. Under this initiative, AICC observers assigned to each district conducted detailed reviews, engaged with party functionaries and other stakeholders, and submitted their comprehensive reports. Following the submission of these reports, one-to-one discussions were held with each observer as well as with senior leaders.”

Both Venugopal and state in-charge BK Hariprasad had held one-to-one consultations with Bhupinder Hooda, his son Deepender Hooda, Kumari Selja, State Congress president Udai Bhan, and Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala for finalising the names.

The party hasn’t had an organisation at the district and block levels of the state for more than a decade now.

Earlier, party observers had submitted a list of six names for each district. In the July 30 meeting, Venugopal and Haryana incharge BK Hariprasad had narrowed down on the list of names to one or two for each district.

A senior party leader, on condition of anonymity, said, “It appears that just like tickets, the senior leaders of Haryana Congress had distributed posts of district party presidents amongst themselves too.”

There was just one woman in the entire list, Santosh Beniwal, who has been appointed president for the Sirsa district. In June, the Congress had released the list of district presidents from Gujarat, which also included just one woman. In the 2002 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the party had given around 40 per cent of the seats to women. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi then had led the campaign. The party seems to have come a long way since.

In Haryana, the party had lost its third consecutive state Assembly elections in 2024, in one of the narrowest elections in history. Absence of grassroots organisation was cited as one of the reasons, besides the internal fight between the Hooda and anti-Hooda camps.

“If district presidents were to be appointed on the choice of top leaders, why was there an 11-year wait?” asked another senior leader of the party.

Haryana Tribune