AFTER A quick dash to Imphal for the launch of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Nyay Jodo Yatra, followed by a surprise appearance in Ayodhya for Makar Sankranti prayers, senior Congress leader Deepender Hooda was present on Tuesday for the launch of the party’s ‘Ghar Ghar Congress’ campaign in Haryana.

While Deepender’s hectic two days indicated the high stakes for the Hoodas and the Congress as the state heads for Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, on the ground, the party remains a bitterly divided house.

On Tuesday, even as Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, along with son Deepender, kicked off the Ghar Ghar campaign from Hooda’s citadel Rohtak, a rival group comprising Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala and Kiran Choudhry (euphemistically dubbed SRK) announced a Jan Sandesh Yatra starting from Hisar on January 17 and ending in February in Ambala, after covering all the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies of Haryana.

Announcing that the yatra would strengthen the Congress, Selja said: “Through this yatra, Congress leaders shall communicate Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s vision to all households across Haryana… The Congress will also expose the BJP’s anti-people policies.”

Selja shared a video message on ‘X’ invoking heroes from the Congress’s history, and linked the Sandesh Yatra to Rahul’s Nyay Yatra. It says that three Congress leaders “with a clean image” are leading the yatra.

हरियाणा में 17 जनवरी से कांग्रेस सन्देश यात्रा की शुरूआत कर रहे हैं। पूरा हरियाणा इंतज़ार में है कि कांग्रेस की सरकार कब बने और इस अन्याय से छुटकारा कब मिले ।

सभी की मांग थी कि राहुल जी पूर्व से लेकर पश्चिम तक एक यात्रा करें, वो यात्रा 14 जनवरी से शुरू हो रही है, हमारा फ़र्ज़… pic.twitter.com/KUSZeY8mey

— Kumari Selja (@Kumari_Selja) January 13, 2024

The trio have commissioned a modified bus for the yatra that will last about a month, and released publicity material featuring them, along with Kharge, Rahul, Priyanka Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Kiran Choudhry’s daughter Shruti also features in the posters, while Hooda and Bhan are the notable absentees.

Last week, Surjewala, Selja and Choudhry were also absent from a meeting called by the Congress in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria in Chandigarh. The three working presidents of the Congress in Haryana, Ram Kishan Gujjar, Suresh Gupta and Shruti Choudhry (seen as belonging to the ‘SRK’ camp), were not present either. Ram Kishan’s wife Shelly Chaudhary, the Congress MLA from Naraingarh, however, was there.

The SRK group has earlier too boycotted party meetings chaired by either Babaria, Bhan or Hooda.

Asked about the group’s yatra on Tuesday, Babaria said the Ghar Ghar campaign was the official campaign of the party.

In an official press statement later in the day, Babaria urged party workers and media “to maintain distance from any other programme, so that there’s no confusion or misconception of any sorts”.

Babaria added that any task carried out against the party lines or by breaking the hierarchy would amount to indiscipline and shall not be tolerated.

A Congress leader said that the continuing rift between the two groups is hurting the party. “All of us are together, but when such separate events are held, it raises confusion in the minds of workers. It is because of this infighting that the party has not been able to create ground-level cadre till date. We hope that the party high command intervenes and sorts it all out,” the leader said.