Selja meets Sonia Gandhi ahead of Haryana polls, kicks off buzz in Congress circles

NEW DELHI: In a surprise development, Sonia Gandhi had a half-hour meeting with senior Congress functionary Selja Thursday, the last day of campaigning for the assembly polls in Haryana , kicking off a buzz on social media and party circles.

While details of the meeting were not known, Selja was unhappy during the campaign and skipped the initial part of canvassing amid reports of grievances with satrap Bhupinder Hooda. She was later persuaded by the party leadership to join the battle. Rahul Gandhi at a recent rally got Selja and Hooda to hold hands in a show of unity.

Interestingly, her meeting with Sonia came on the day defector Ashok Tanwar, who contested against her on a BJP ticket from the reserved Sirsa LS seat, joined back the party in Rahul's presence at a rally in Mahendragarh.

Also, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge at a rally in Charkhi Dadri Wednesday targeted PM Modi as "king of people who break promises", and told Hooda that he would "have to keep my honour" by fulfilling Congress's guarantees to the people of Haryana.

The remark is seen as significant as it alluded to Hooda being the CM face in the polls, even though Congress has not announced its chief ministerial candidate yet.

Selja is a chief ministerial aspirant and a rival of the Hooda camp that dominates state Congress affairs. In a recent interview, Selja said she could not recall when she last spoke to Hooda, who calls Selja his sister.