‘Selja vital for Congress’, former CM Hooda rebukes comments against dalit leader

Chandigarh: Strongly coming out in support of Kumari Selja, former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said that she is a sister and a respected leader of the Congress party.

“If any Congress leader or worker makes a wrong comment about her, they have nothing to do with the Congress,” he added.

He said this in response to a question asked about Selja.

“This is only a part of political propaganda and people are not going to get divided on the basis of caste. All communities are going to unite and form the Congress government. Only one slogan is echoing in the whole of Haryana – jaat par na paat Par, button dabega haath Par,” Hooda said.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and former MLA from Beri, Om Prakash Kadian and his son Vikram Kadian joined the Congress on Monday.

Vikram has contested elections from Beri twice on a BJP ticket. BJP Mahila Morcha’s state general secretary Gayatri Devi also joined the Congress, along with many sarpanchs, block committee chairmen, BJP officials and hundreds of workers.

Hooda welcomed them by putting a Congress sash and assured them that they will be given full respect.

On the question of BJP supporting HLP candidate Gopal Kanda from Sirsa, Hooda said that the people of the state already knew this. “INLD-HLP, which earlier had an indirect alliance with BJP, has now become public,” he said. “In Haryana, the direct contest is between Congress and BJP. All the parties like INLD, JJP, HLP have been fielded only to cut the votes of Congress. BJP has also given this responsibility to many Independents. The public needs to be cautious of such candidates,” he added. Hooda said that BJP is also spreading propaganda about ending reservation, whereas BJP ended reservation in the recruitment of Kaushal Nigam in Haryana.

“BJP has also snatched reservation by reducing the limit of creamy layer of OBC from 8 to 6 lakh. Congress implemented the Constitution and reservation in the country and only Congress will protect it. Whereas BJP’s policies have always been against the constitution and reservation,” he stated.