Hooda plays down bickerings in Mumbai Cong

On a mission to contain infighting in Mumbai Congress ahead of the city polls, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today sought to play down the bickerings in the unit saying all issues would be resolved amicably, days after AICC general secretary Gurudas Kamat slammed the city party chief Sanjay Nirupam.
Talking to reporters after the party core committee meet, Hooda said, "the issue is an internal matter of the party and we will resolve it. Congress will unitedly fight the elections. The issue is not about who contests the elections and who does not. There may be internal differences, but the party is united."

Kamat, a former Mumbai party chief and AICC General Secretary in-charge of Rajasthan, however, was absent at the meet as he was in Udaipur for the "Jan Vedna" rally.
Congress legislators from the city, former MPs, former city unit presidents and AICC general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra Mohan Prakash were present at the two-hour long deliberations.
Former MPs Milind Deora, Eknath Gaikwad and Priya Dutt also attended the meeting.
"The party had decided to keep aside internal differences and fight the Sena-BJP," Deora told reporters after the meeting.

He also tweeted later about it and said," had a good meeting with @BhupinderSHooda regarding @BMCpolls. Glad that @INCIndia finally intends to discipline habitual saboteurs and agitators."

Nirupam, who has been accused of running the party in a highhanded manner by Kamat, refused to comment on whether the latter's open criticism was discussed by the meeting or not.
When pressed for his response, he quipped, "We are focused on dislodging the Sena-BJP from the civic body and will not divert from the goal."
"We discussed issues like alliance with NCP and SP and the procedure of candidate selection. All district-level candidate selection interviews have been done. In wards where there is only one probable name, the list of candidates will be announced soon," he said.
"In those seats where there are more than one probable candidates, a meeting will be held after January 27 and the list will be finalised," Nirupam added.

He said Hooda heard out all views and will convey the same to the party leadership.
Kamat had accused Nirupam of "driving out" partymen
through his style of functioning and said he would be withdrawing from the campaign for Mumbai municipal polls, slated for next month.
Deep divisions in the city unit came to fore in the wake of former city MLA Krishna Hegde joining the BJP recently.
Sharpening his attack on Nirupam, Kamat, earlier this week, alleged that Nirupam and Prakash were "deliberately driving out" partymen at a time when Rahul Gandhi is busy with UP and other elections.

He had tweeted, "Sad to see second generation Congressmen forced to leave the party due to Nirupam and Mohan Prakash's behaviour. Rahul Gandhi and Ahmed Patel must stop the bleed.