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Sonia kicks off Haryana roadshow
Tribune News ServiceFaridabad, February 25
The much publicised two-day tour of the state by the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, began here this morning. The tour marks the beginning of the election campaign of the Congress in Haryana for the Lok Sabha poll. Although about 70 welcome gates had been erected and party leaders and workers had gathered at many places along the main road, Mrs Gandhi chose to stop at two places to talk to people. She spent about three hours in the district, before leaving for Gurgaon district. Top leaders of the Haryana Congress were present at the helipad to welcome Mrs Gandhi. They included the HPCC chief, Mr Bhajan Lal, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bhupinder Hooda, and Mr Birender Singh. The leaders jointly addressed the media and claimed that there were no differences among them and the party was united. They said the candidates for the 10 seats in Haryana would be finalised within 10 days. Regarding a tie-up, they said they would abide by the decision of the party high command. Mr Bhajan Lal said though he was not interested in contesting the poll, yet he would go as per the party wishes. Mrs Gandhi went to Jharsently village near Ballabgarh and met people there. Mrs Gandhi’s entourage stopped again at Dhatir village, near Palwal town, where she met women working in the fields. She asked the women to take her to their house, and spent 10 minutes there. Her next destination was Sohna. Mr B.R. Ojha and Mr
Rajesh Sharma, president and spokesperson of the DPCC, respectively, claimed that the roadshow of the party received a good
response.DHARUHERA (Rewari): The Congress President today played down factionalism in the Haryana Congress, saying that such things happened in a big organisation, but asserted that things would be alright when it would matter. In a brief interaction with mediapersons here, she criticised the INLD government for the “poor state of affairs”. She cited the plight of farmers and unemployment as major issues blighting the state. Earlier, she received a good response from the public in Sohna when she entered Gurgaon district, which falls in the Mahendergarh parliamentary constituency. She walked about 100 metres, waving her hand and received garlands from people. There were melodramatic scenes when her caravan screeched to a halt on the road flanked by the waiting public. The barricaded fence cracked at some places due to the rush of the public. A member had climbed up a tree evading the security personnel, sending them in a tizzy. From Sohna the next venue was Taoru, which falls in the Faridabad parliamentary constituency. The response in Taoru was better than Sohna. She made impromptu stoppages at villages falling along her route. At Dulahal, she lifted a baby girl in her arms opposite a temple. There she also received a memento from the woman manager of the temple.
JHAJJAR: Mrs Gandhi evoked an impressive response during her visit here this evening, but party supporters were disappointed as she did not halt here or at Beri, about 15 km from here, her next scheduled stop. Running almost three hours behind schedule, Mrs Gandhi’s vehicle only slowed down at the designated places and she accepted flowers from Congress workers while sitting inside the vehicle. Local party leaders had been waiting on the roadside along with their supporters for more than six hours. Her caravan drove off to Beri where a large number of Congress supporters, led by party legislator Raghbir Singh Kadian had been waiting for her since noon. At Kalanaur in Rohtak district, too, Congress workers were in for a similar disappointed as the Congress President did not stop there.
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