Congress high command’s prestige at stake in Bawani Khera
The prestige of the central party leadership is at stake in the Bawani Khera (reserved) constituency where All India Congress Committee (AICC) national secretary Pradeep Narwal has been nominated as the Congress candidate.
Narwal, hailing from Kathura village in Sonepat, is considered close to the top party leadership, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
Congress sources revealed that he has been the direct nominee of the party high command as his name was not pushed forward by any of the state leaders of the party during the discussion for the selection of candidates. Narwal has faced rebellion from the Congress aspirants, including three-time MLA Ram Kishan Fauji and one of the strong aspirants Satbir Ratera. Both of them have filed the nomination as Independent candidates. Narwal, who did his masters in mediavel history from Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU), is a resident of Sonepat district’s Kathura village, which is a part of Baroda Assembly constituency. He had worked with Priyanka Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh.
Fauji, who rebelled against the party’s decision, said he is an outsider thus people will not accept him. “Why he was not nominated as a party candidate from Sonepat, Rohtak or Jhajjar district,” he wrote on his Facebook account.
Ashok Kumar, a resident Bawani Khera town, said Narwal seems to be the candidate of the party high command who has landed via parachute. “We are yet to know about him. He has just arrived after getting the ticket and has no previous working in the political circle here,” he said.
The supporters of the Congress leaders in Bawani Khera even had gone to the AICC office in Delhi to register their protest when they got a whiff of the party’s plan to field Narwal from this segment.
