Ajay Yadav flags under-representation of OBCs in Haryana Cong, slams Babaria

Congress leader Capt Ajay Singh Yadav (retd) on Monday raised concerns about under-representation of OBCs in the party's Haryana unit and top bodies, such as the Congress Working Committee and the Central Election Committee, while also lashing out at AICC incharge of state Deepak Babaria over the poor Assembly poll performance.

Yadav, who took a U-turn after resigning, said he would remain a Congressman "till his last breath" and that he had an "offer" from the BJP post-election, but he did not take it as his family had a 70-year-old relationship with the Congress.

"I am not going to the BJP though many have gone. I have spent my entire life here. My son is a secretary (in the AICC). We have 70 years of ties with the party. I have worked with Rajiv ji, Sonia ji and was given respect. She made me CLP, minister. So, one has to respect that," he said at a press conference here.

Yadav, whose son Chiranjeev Rao lost from Rewari in the recently concluded Assembly poll, said the party could not effectively micro manage the poll.

"(AICC Haryana incharge) Babaria ji was in hospital. Now, he is offering resignation, why didn't he do it earlier? If he was unwell, he should have resigned. Our PCC chief was himself busy fighting an election," the chairman of the Congress OBC department said.

In the J&K elections, OBC people were not given ticket, and in Haryana also, they did not get the kind of importance they should have. He claimed that his post of chairman of the OBC department was an "ornamental" one.

"There are just SCs and Jats for representation. I had raised the issue of caste census, which was not being properly implemented in the Congress-ruled states. There is also the issue of raising of creamy layer limit and proper representation in higher education," he said.

"In Haryana, if you see, OBCs have more representation in the BJP. Rao Inderjit Singh is an OBC, Bhupinder Yadav is an OBC, Krishan Pal Gurjar is an OBC, they are all Union ministers....They have a Punjabi in Manohar Lal Khattar. Social engineering has not been done in the Haryana Congress, where the OBCs are being under-represented," he said.