Infighting, miscalculations and more: How Congress served Haryana to BJP on a platter

Infighting and miscalculation appear to have cost the Congress heavily in the Haryana Assembly polls. (File Photo: PTI)

The Congress party on Tuesday said it “refuses to accept” the “surprising” results declared by the Election Commission of India for the Haryana Assembly elections, terming the mandate a “subversion of the will of the people” and a “defeat of democracy”. The Congress has moved the EC regarding complaints it claims to have received from several districts across Haryana.

The reasons the Congress cites to reject a democratic verdict may be questionable but its dismissiveness may not be entirely misplaced. Away from power for a decade, the Congress took its victory in the state as a writing on the wall. It firmly believed that victory was imminent and that the BJP’s below-par performance in the Lok Sabha elections in the state only made the Congress’ path to power a walk in the park.

However, truth turned out to be stranger than perception, and the BJP now heads towards a historic third consecutive term in power. For Congress, it’s a giant missed opportunity, one that could haunt it in the coming elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, states where it is in a direct contest with the BJP like Haryana.

As it appears from the remarks of its leaders at the moment, it will take a while for the Congress to digest this defeat. “We have sought time from the EC to submit our complaints over the next few days. Introspection will happen, but later,” Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary, told reporters at a press conference this evening.

Much of the blame for the situation the Congress finds itself in, however, is its own doing.

The Congress chose to become extremely dependent on Jat voters, a community that forms around 27 percent of the electorate. However, the results showed that the Congress did not manage to win a majority of the Jat-dominated seats.

The party won Kaithal, Baroda, Julana, Tohana, Ellenabad, Meham, Garhi Sampla-Kiloi and Badli, others like Panipat Rural, Sonipat, Gohana, Badhra, Jhajjar, Uchana Kalan, and Narnaund went in the BJP’s favour while Dabwali was bagged by the INLD.

Despite the party’s problem of plenty when it comes to influential leaders, the party chose to allow Bhupinder Singh Hooda a free hand when it came to ticket distribution and selection of candidates. All through the election, Hooda remained the dominant force within the Congress.

As many as 72 candidates of the 90 the party fielded in the state were those who were hand-picked by Hooda and were seen as his loyalists. Miffed over being denied tickets, several of them complained to the high command and eventually quit. Of the 72 fielded at Hooda’s behest, 28 were sitting MLAs. Of these 28, 15 lost from their seats. The margin of victory between the Congress and BJP in the end (11) turned out to be fewer than the number of sitting MLAs who lost their seats.

The open show of dissent and infighting within its state unit in Haryana appears to have hurt the Congress electorally. The two prominent factions, led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja, respectively, did not just portray Congress as a divided unit, it also allowed the BJP to use it against them.

Selja’s repeated statements staking claim to the Chief Minister’s post only made matters worse for the grand old party as the BJP used it to accuse the Congress of being anti-Dalit. The high command’s indecision on the leadership issue also confused a section of voters as the BJP, unlike previous elections, entered the polls with Nayab Saini, an OBC, as its CM face. This also allowed the saffron party to rally the support of non-Jat OBCs.

All through the campaign, the party appeared to have been consumed by its performance in the Lok Sabha elections where it managed to increase its tally from zero in 2019 to 5 this time. The Congress’ vote share had also seen a significant jump of around 15 percent.

Confident of its performance, the party chose to rely too heavily on controversies such as the Agnipath scheme, the farmers’ agitation and the wrestlers’ protest – while ignoring pressing internal issues – to help it sail through. The issues, however, failed to resonate with a majority of voters and did not translate into votes for the Congress.