Ajay Yadav to head Campaign committee, Naveen Jindal publicity committee

NEW DELHI: Haryana Minister Ajay Yadav, who had resigned from Bhupinder Singh Hooda government sometime back but later withdrew it, was today made chairman of the campaign committee for the poll-bound state while Naveen Jindal was appointed as chairman of the publicity committee.

The campaign committee has senior leader Kiran Chaudhary as its co-convenor and Dilu Ram Bazigar as convenor.

Chief Minister Hooda, PCC Chief Ashok Tanwar, former union minister Kumari Shelja, former PCC Chief Phool Chand Mullana, lone party MP in Lok Sabha from Haryana Deepender Singh Hooda, Shadi Lal Batra, Shruti Chaudhary, AICC spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala and Jindal were among the 40 members of the Haryana Pradesh Election Campaign Committee announced today.

The Haryana Pradesh Publicity and Publication Committee headed by Jindal has Ajay Sharma as convenor and seven other members including Deepender Hooda.

AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi said that the Congress President Sonia Gandhi has approved the Haryana Pradesh Congress Campaign Committee and Publicity and Publication Committee.

The party has taken care to represent various sections in these committees of the faction-ridden Haryana state unit where elections are due in few months.

Haryana is first among the four states where elections are going to be held this year.

A number of Congress leaders in Haryana have left the party and joined BJP and INLD in last few months.

Ajay Yadav had also announced his resignation from the Hooda Ministry but was made to withdraw it after leadership's intervention, which resolved the "minor issues".

While Deepender Hooda, son of the Chief Minister, has been represented in both the committees, known detractors of Bhupinder Singh Hooda have also been accommodated.

The leadership has some time back ruled out the change of guard in the state amid demands from a section of state leaders that the party should not fight the next polls under his leadership.