Chandigarh, February 3
From facing a problem of plenty, the Haryana unit of the Congress may well be moving towards a “dearth” of candidates in the race for the post of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president.

Following the recent “Chintan Shivir” of the Congress at Jaipur, most Congressmen seem to have developed cold feet about heading the state unit of the party. If suggestions made by the Congress think tank at the shivir are anything to go by, party presidents may not be able to contest elections in future.

Sources in the Congress said as per deliberations at the shivir, it was felt that the party president should be made a whole-time job instead of juggling between constituencies and party work. With Parliament and Assembly elections in the state slated for next year and contesting elections a priority with most politicians, the number of candidates in the race for the president’s post has gone down, if insiders are to be believed.

At present, the state unit of the party is headed by Phool Chand Mullana. He has been working as the acting president of the unit ever since he resigned from the post in October 2011 “owning moral responsibility” for the party candidate’s defeat in the Hisar byelection.

Sources said the two-year-search for a “suitable” candidate for the post has not thrown up any conclusive result so far and the party deliberations at Jaipur only seem to have further compounded the problem.

Names of most top leaders of the state, including Union Minister Selja, former Union Minister of State and MP Rao Indrajit, Rajya Sabha member Ram Prakash, MP Ashok Tanwar, state ministers Capt Ajay Yadav, Geeta Bhukkal, have been doing the rounds in the past. However, the Congress high command has so far been unable to arrive at a decision. The result: Mullana continues to head the party unit.