Cong suspends Bhajan’s son for remarks against Sonia

NEW DELHI: The congress has shown the door to former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal’s son Kuldeep Bishnoi. The Bhiwani MP, a staunch critic of chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has been suspended for anti-party activities after his recent remarks about Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Mr Bishnoi, who will not lose his Lok Sabha membership on account of the suspension from the party’s primary membership, reacted to the order from the party’s disciplinary action committee (DAC) by claiming this act showed Ms Gandhi was not with the aam aadmi. “It is a Mukesh Ambani party,” the defiant MP said. He has been targeting Mr Hooda and his government for over a year over land acquisition for the Reliance SEZ project in Haryana. More recently, he attacked Ms Gandhi for her participation in a rally in Sirsa, Haryana, to mark the completion of two years in office of the Hooda government.

“You are indulging in anti-party activities by publicly criticizing the policies of the party and the government in the state and also speaking against the leadership of the party publicly. In this connection... you were served a show-case notice... Despite your response not being satisfactory, the party did not take disciplinary action in the hope that you will correct yourself. It appears that you do not want to be disciplined,” a communication from Mr A K Antony, chairperson of the Congress DAC said.

Mr Bishnoi, in his reaction to the charge that he had spoken out against Ms Gandhi, said: “What wrong have I done by requesting Ms Gandhi to visit Panipat, the site of Attari Express terror strike or to go to Gurgaon where (Honda) workers were brutally lathicharged and visit Gohana where houses of Dalits were burnt?” Though Mr Bishnoi and the Bhajan Lal camp in the Congress didn’t reveal their immediate plans, party insiders said the father-son duo could float a new political outfit. Speaking after his suspension, Mr Bishnoi maintained that his father, a veteran of Haryana politics, was with him. “We are the real Congress”, he said. On questions about his brother and Haryana deputy chief minister Chandra Mohan, Mr Bishnoi chose to be evasive.

According to a Congress leader from the state, Mr Bhajan Lal’s appeal to non-Jat voters in the state could prove to be costly for both the Congress and the opposition Indian National Lok Dal. “He (Bhajan Lal) can cause a very serious dent to the Congress or damage INLD. It could become a triangular contest in the next polls. Nobody knows which side he will take,” the leader said. In the context of the Congress having lost Punjab and Uttarakhand, he said the party’s chances in Haryana were also not looking bright.