Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda clarifies on meeting Ghulam Nabi Azad

NEW DELHI: Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday clarified his reason for meeting ex-Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. Prithviraj Chavan, Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Singh Hooda had on Tuesday met Azad, who has resigned from the party and is set to hold his first public meeting in Jammu on September 4.

Terming it a "courtesy" call, Hooda said they all met as they have been party colleagues for years and had raised certain issues about party polls. "We asked him why he quit when his demands were met," he stated. The process for the Congress President's election has come into the spotlight after few leaders questioned the non-availability of electoral rolls in the public domain.

Two Congress leaders, Manish Tewari and Karti Chidambaram, on Wednesday urged the Central Election Authority, headed by Madhusudan Mistry, to make the electoral rolls public and available on the Congress website.

However, the CEA said that these rolls will be made available to candidates contesting elections.

Tewari and Karti Chidambaram had raised concerns over the manner in which the presidential poll in the party was being held. In a tweet Chidambaram had said: "Every election needs a well defined & clear electoral college. The process of forming the electoral college must also be clear, well defined & transparent. An ad hoc electoral college is no electoral college."

Anandpur Sahib MP Tewari too has raised doubts over the electoral rolls ahead of the party's presidential poll, saying these should be made public to ensure a free and fair election process. (IANS)

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