As BJP Prods Dalit MP Selja To Jump Ship, Hooda’s Future As Haryana CM Looks Uncertain

Fishing in troubled waters of the Congress in the midst of Haryana assembly polls, former Haryana CM and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar invited Sirsa MP Kumari Selja, one of the senior-most Dalit faces of the Congress, to join the BJP. Khattar’s invitation to Kumari Selja went amidst reports that the veteran Dalit leader had been missing from the Congress’s campaign for the Haryana Assembly election. Referring to Selja’s absence from the Congress’s campaign, Khattar said, “One of our Dalit sisters has been insulted and abused by the Congress. She is sitting at home, but the Hoodas (Bhupinder Hooda and Deepender Hooda) and the Gandhis (Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi) family are not even ashamed.” The buzz about a rift in Haryana Congress came after Selja was not seen during the party’s manifesto launch event by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Congress sources said Selja had been pushed to the wall in terms of tickets for her nominees. She had wanted only 3 tickets for her nominees.  Even these did not come easily. They were given seats far away from their choice.” Selja, a CWC member, but she had to push for the tickets with the likes of KC Venugopal. Such a senior leader was really humiliated. The Gandhis did nothing to back her. Hooda even refused to take calls from the Gandhis,” said a party source. It is this high-handedness and touching faith in power of his community support — of the Jats — that may eventually cost Bhupinder Hooda this election. “Hooda could be losing a winning election because of his own fault. He has thrown this election away by antagonizing loyalist party leaders like Selja,” pointed out a Haryana BJP leader.