Congress wave in Haryana, says Priyanka

Sirsa (Haryana) : Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday claimed that there was a Congress wave in Haryana.

She said this during a roadshow in Haryana’s Sirsa in support of the party’s Lok Sabha candidate Kumari Selja. Accompanying Kumari Selja and the party’s legislator Kiran Choudhary, Priyanka Gandhi travelled in an open vehicle and cheerfully acknowledged the people by waving and accepting garlands during the roadshow that lasted for nearly an hour.

Crowds of party workers standing on both sides of the roads chanted slogans ‘Congress party Zindabad’ and showered flower petals on her.

“There’s a massive Congress wave in Haryana and the Congress will clean sweep Haryana in these elections,” she told the media.

She said, “People are tired of their (BJP) politics. There is too much unemployment and inflation is at its peak. Change will come.”

This was the first political function of Priyanka Gandhi in the state where the campaigning for the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls comes to an end on Thursday evening.

Selja, the former Haryana Congress chief, represented the Sirsa and Ambala (Reserved) constituencies twice each in the Lok Sabha. She has also been a Rajya Sabha MP from 2014 to 2020.

Sunita Duggal, a former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was the BJP’s lone woman ‘warrior’ in Haryana’s 10 parliamentary seats in 2019 and emerged the winner from Sirsa (Reserved) by defeating her nearest rival and Congress leader Ashok Tanwar by a margin of more than 3,00,000 votes.

Her victory gave the BJP its first win in Sirsa, which used to be a bastion of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Congress.

Sunita Duggal was keen to contest this time as well but the BJP fielded Congress and AAP rebel, Ashok Tanwar, from the seat.

Interestingly, both Selja, who returns to the electoral battle in Sirsa after 26 years, and Tanwar, are former state Congress presidents and there is a straight contest between them this time.

Polling in all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana will be held on May 25.