Chandigarh, Nov 22 (IANS): At a time when the central leadership of the Congress has issued a diktat to senior leaders of the faction-ridden Haryana Congress to stop going public against one another, the dramatis personae seem to be doing exactly the opposite.

The knives are out between Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda's faction on one side and his detractors on the other.

In the latest round, state Congress president Phool Chand Mullana, who just the other day forbade state Congress leaders from going public with statements against the Hooda government and one another, has himself come out with a missive against union Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Empowerment and Ambala Lok Sabha MP Selja.

The minister is a bitter critic of Hooda and his government's policies and is counted among the chief minister's top detractors within the Congress. Selja is considered close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Other leading detractors of Hooda in the state include Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh and Gurgaon Lok Sabha MP and former union minister of state for defence Inderjit Singh.

Selja, Birender Singh and Inderjit Singh did not attend the recent 'Haryana Shakti Rally' at Gohana town organized by the Congress party in an apparent show of strength by the Hooda government ahead of the 2014 general elections and the assembly elections next October.

Hooda, during his speech at the rally, had taunted his party detractors. Inderjit Singh had attended a public rally of the opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) just a week earlier.

Selja had later claimed that she had not been invited to the Gohana rally.

She said that the rally was not that of the Congress party.

Reacting to this, Mullana, a known supporter of Hooda, described it as "unfortunate".

"Prior to the rally, a resolution was unanimously passed regarding participating in the rally at the party meeting held at Chandigarh in the presence of (Congress general secretary and Haryana in-charge) Shakeel Ahmad. The meeting was also attended by those leaders of the party who remained absent from the Gohana rally," Mullana asserted.

"By making this statement, she has insulted the party workers," Mullana said.

Taking a dig at Selja, Mullana said: "The Haryana Shakti Rally has proved to be the largest rally organized in the history of the state. The success of the rally has unnerved not only the opposition but some leaders of the Congress party also."

Mullana's statement clearly pointed to the increasing differences within the top leaders of the state Congress.

With the Hooda camp submitting its report on the rally through Mullana to the Congress high command in New Delhi, the infighting is showing no sings of abating in the near future.