After four months on the road in Haryana, Congress leader Brijendra Singh, IAS-turned-politician, appears to be more assured now, with several party leaders and MLAs beginning to join his statewide padyatra or foot march, called Sadbhav Yatra.
Inspired by Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi’s two-phased Bharat Jodo Yatra, the former Hisar MP launched his march across Haryana on October 5 last year. In a little over four months, he has already covered nearly 1,800 km. Singh is currently vice-chairman of the All India Congress Committee (AICC)’s Foreign Affairs Department.
Of Haryana’s 90 Assembly constituencies, Singh has walked through 51 so far. The yatra is now covering Kurukshetra district after crossing Ambala and Yamunanagar districts. Yamunanagar is the only district where the district party president and both Congress MLAs — Renu Bala and Akram Khan — have joined him.
In Ambala, almost the entire district party unit rallied round Singh, barring Ambala City MLA Nirmal Singh, who is considered close to state party stalwart and ex-chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. A sizeable number of Nirmal Singh’s supporters also joined the yatra.
Earlier, only two MLAs — Aditya Surjewala (Kaithal) and Vinesh Phogat (Julana) — had joined Singh’s march. Aditya’s father, Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala, Sirsa MP and former Union minister Kumari Selja, former Haryana minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav, former Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, and over half a dozen district presidents have also extended support to him and even joined his yatra. They are considered to be Hooda’s rivals within the state party unit.
Out of Haryana’s 90 assembly constituencies, former MP Brijendra Singh has already traversed 51. (Express photo/Special arrangement)
However, no prominent leader from the Hooda camp has joined Singh’s yatra so far. Soon after its launch, when asked if he would participate in it, Hooda said: “I will join if it is a Congress programme. Everyone is free to hold events in their own way.” He added: “Singh is holding a Sadbhav Yatra, which is a good initiative.”
Hooda’s associate and Hisar MP Jai Prakash said: “This is a personal yatra. If someone undertakes a march in the name of the party, then not joining it would be indiscipline.”
Sources close to Singh say most of Hooda’s supporters have kept a “tactical distance”. A Congress leader close to Hooda said there was no directive either way: “No one has been asked to stay away from it.”
Hooda, who ruled Haryana for nearly a decade, continues to command the backing of most of the party’s 37 MLAs. At a recent lunch hosted by him in Delhi, 32 legislators turned up, along with 86 MPs, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
Yet, sources indicate the Hooda camp is closely tracking Singh’s yatra, aware that he could emerge as a key leader if he could sustain its momentum. At 53, Singh also has age on his side, along with his civil services background.
Out of Haryana’s 90 assembly constituencies, former MP Brijendra Singh has already traversed 51. (Express photo/Special arrangement)
His father, former Union minister Birender Singh, also a Congress leader, has long been seen as a chief ministerial aspirant within the party. His grandfather, Sir Chhotu Ram, Punjab’s revenue minister from 1937 to 1945, remains revered among farmers for his reforms, particularly the Punjab Relief of Indebtedness Act, 1934, which shielded peasants from exploitative moneylenders.
Both Birender and Brijendra, who belong to the Jat community, had switched to the BJP several years ago, but returned to the Congress fold ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Within Congress circles, Brijendra has drawn attention for making what party leaders describe as “positive efforts” to strengthen the organisation while maintaining a “safe distance” from the state party unit’s factional politics. As he puts it: “My yatra is beyond groupism. It is not a vote-seeking exercise. Our agenda is to resist attempts to weaken the brotherhood of the 36 biradaris, to ensure unity among all communities, and to strengthen the bond between Congress workers and the party.”
