Ahmed Patel's stinging question to Hooda sends Congress in huddle
All is not well within the Congress. No, we are not talking about the evident infighting in the party circles ahead of assembly elections this month. The grand-old-party has brought itself a new embarrassment. In a video doing rounds on social media, three top Congress leaders were caught on camera discussing the prospects of the party in the upcoming assembly election in Haryana.
In the video, Ahmed Patel, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ghulam Nabi Azad can be seen having a discussion on ticket allocation outside the Parliament building.
"Surjewala ko kitni di (How many were given to Surjewala?" Patel asks Hooda. "Four," Hooda says in response. It was, however, not clear who Hooda was referring to. Their conversation is fairly audible in the video.
Ahmed Patel, then, says: "Party gayi kahan? (Where has the party gone)". "Iske kehne ka matlab hai baaki log neutral hain? (You mean to say others are neutral?, Patel says. Hooda says in response: "Haan neutral hain."
After the embarrassing video went viral, the top leadership of the Congress was said to be in a huddle to look for damage control.
Significantly, the video emerged as the infighting in the Haryana Congress came out in the open on Wednesday when former state unit President Ashok Tanwar, along with his hundreds of supporters, staged a protest outside the residence of Sonia Gandhi, alleging wrong doings in the election ticket distribution in the state.
Another senior party leader and former Minister Kiran Chowdhary is also said to be unhappy as her recommendation for tickets has been ignored.
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