Haryana: Cong announces appointment of 32 district committee presidents

Chandigarh: The Congress on Tuesday evening announced the names of 32 newly appointed presidents of the party's district committees in Haryana.

Sources said that several of those appointed are considered close to senior leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja.

The process of appointing new district committee presidents was kicked off in June when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held a meeting with senior leaders from Haryana and with the AICC and Pradesh Congress Committee observers as part of an organisation rejuvenation campaign.

The names of the district committee presidents were announced by Congress general secretary K C Venugopal on Tuesday evening.

The Congress, which has been out of power in Haryana for over a decade, has not had a district-level organisation in the state for 11 years.

A party statement issued on Tuesday said, "The Congress president has approved the proposal for the appointment of presidents of the District Congress Committees of Haryana. These appointments are made as part of the Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan."

"Under this initiative, AICC observers assigned to each district conducted detailed reviews, engaged with party functionaries and other stakeholders, and submitted their comprehensive reports. Following the submission of these reports, one-to-one discussions were held with each observer, as well as with senior leaders," it added.

With the announcement, the party has sought to strike a caste and regional balance by accommodating leaders representing backwards classes, Jats, Brahimns, Rajputs, Baniyas and Punjabis.

Parvinder Pari, Anirudh Chaudhary and Vardhan Yadav, who unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Haryana Assembly polls, featured in the list. Santosh Beniwal was the only woman in the list, and she has been appointed as the president of the Sirsa district Congress committee.

Pari has been named the president of the Ambala Cantt district Congress committee, Pawan Aggarwal for Ambala City, Anirudh Chaudhary for Bhiwani Rural, Sushil Dhanak for Charkhi Dadri, Arvind Sharma for Fatehabad, and Vardhan Yadav for Gurugram Rural.

Pankaj Dawar is the president of the Gurugram Urban district Congress committee, Shahida Khan for Mewat, Netrapal Adhana for Palwal, Balwan Singh Ranga for Rohtak Rural, Kuldeep Singh for Rohtak Urban, Santosh Beniwal for Sirsa, Baljeet Kaushik for Faridabad, Brij Lal Khoval for Hisar Rural and Bajrang Das Garg for Hisar Urban.