Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s first election rally in Haryana on Thursday brought two key warring factions in the state unit together on a common platform in Karnal following which "sulking" Sirsa MP Kumari Selja began electioneering.

Selja and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda shared the stage at the election rally in Karnal’s Assand area. Selja — who is among the star campaigners of the Congress and is the Dalit face of the party in the state — had not been seen for a fortnight, fuelling speculation of her joining the BJP.

Her absence from the campaign had prompted Union home minister Amit Shah to allege that the Congress was disrespecting their Dalit leader, and Union minister and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar went to the extent of inviting her to the BJP. Selja had sought to put the speculation to rest earlier this week by telling the media that she would begin campaigning from Thursday.

She kept her word, turning up for Rahul’s rally and was lined up to address three more rallies during the day — two in Hissar and one in Tohana in Fatehabad district. Her campaign schedule for Friday — which she posted on her X handle — has another set of four rallies.

Selja, a chief minister aspirant, is upset about the Congress high command giving Hooda a free hand in deciding candidates in a majority of seats in the state. Hooda had so much say on candidate selection that he was also able to push back efforts led by Rahul himself to stitch up a seat-sharing arrangement with the AAP. Only one seat, Bhiwani, has been conceded to an INDIA bloc constituent — CPM.

After the Assand rally, Rahul addressed another in Hissar. In both rallies, he dwelt on the increased migration of youth from Haryana to the US; often taking the illegal migration route (donkey flights which in local parlance is called dunki). He narrated meeting some of these youths in Dallas during his visit to the US earlier this month and then connecting with their families back in Haryana, using it as an example to show how the BJP government had failed on the employment front.

Stating that some of the youths, who had chosen to take all modes of transport to get to the US, had spent nearly ₹50 lakh doing so, Rahul quoted them as claiming that they left Haryana as even this amount would not be enough to start a business in the state.

He again targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for only working for big businessmen; particularly the Adani-Ambani duo. "The farm laws were made for them, the flawed GST was to suit them and demonetisation also benefitted them," he asserted, adding that the BJP lost the Faizabad seat — where Ayodhya is located — because Prime Minister Modi chose to invite the likes of Adani, Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan but not farmers and workers.