Kumari Selja writes to High Command regarding Hooda's meeting with Azad, latter says 'courtesy call'

Senior Congress leader, former Haryana Congress state president and party Central Working Committee member Kumari Selja has questioned Hooda's meeting with Ghulam Nabi and said that she will put this matter before the party leadership.

Delhi: Addressing the meeting of veteran leader and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda with ex-party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, Haryana Congress leader Kumari Selja said on Thursday that she had taken up the issue and written to the party High Command, noting many people within the state were 'angered' by the decision.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Selja said it was her responsibility to make the High Command aware of such public sentiments persisting in the state. "Azad Saab has left the party, has informed all regarding his decision to form a new party and said a good lot about our leaders, that too at a time when Sonia Gandhi had gone away for treatment.

In this situation, when any leader from Haryana goes and speaks with him, visible anger appears to form among people in the state. Many have contacted me, expressing that the meeting does not bode well for the Congress in Haryana. I, therefore, felt it was necessary to raise this issue with the High Command, who will take note" she said.

"We have various issues plaguing Haryana, including corruption, unemployment, and several other things. These are issues that Congress should take up inside the state now. Instead, we are doing things that disparage and enrage our workers. These send a conflicting signal, and any leader taking any such step should think before acting" the former Congress state president noted.

The comment comes in the backdrop of fellow party leaders Anand Sharma and Prithviraj Chavan, meeting dissident Azad back on August 30, giving rise to speculations. Notably, Anand Sharma quit the post of Chairman of the Steering Committee in the hill state back on August 21, saying "as a self-respecting person", he had been "left with no choice."

Hooda, meanwhile, said the meeting was a 'courtesy call', adding that the four had been colleagues in Congress for a long period of time. "We asked him why he quit when his demands were met," the former Chief Minister explained when inquired.