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Overconfidence, shoddy campaign: Insiders flag reasons for Cong’s Haryana loss

Oct 08, 2024 09:08 PM IST

A Congress leader blamed overreliance on the dominant Jat community, which accounts for nearly 25% of Haryana’s population, among the reasons for the loss

A week before the polling in Haryana, a young Congress candidate from a constituency near Faridabad frantically dialled a central leader to complain that no state-level leader had come to campaign for him. Midway into the campaign earlier, a senior leader attended rallies with former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the party’s best crowd puller, and found that not more than 6,000-7,000 people came for them. He suggested engaging women in every village to reach out to voters to publicise Congress’s seven guarantees including the filling up of 200000 government vacancies. The suggestion was overlooked.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at the release of the party's manifesto. (ANI)
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at the release of the party's manifesto. (ANI)

Amid the shock waves of an unexpected defeat in Haryana, Congress leaders noted overconfidence, overdependence on the Hooda family, focus on Jat issues, shoddy campaign, and the state unit’s inability to take different sections of society along cost the party another state in north India.

“We made the big mistake of taking things for granted. I could see everyone around me thinking we had won the polls. After Madhya Pradesh and the Chhattisgarh defeats last year, we should have been careful,” said a leader involved in the Haryana polls.

A second leader cited the Lok Sabha election results in Haryana and said it was clear that the assembly elections would not be a walkover. “Yet, we failed to give the extra push,” said the leader. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won five seats each in the national polls in Haryana.

A third leader pointed out overreliance on the dominant Jat community, which accounts for nearly 25% of Haryana’s population. “We spoke about the issue of the [sexual harassment of] wrestlers, who are Jats. The farmer issues and their protests were also a major issue but if you look at it primarily the Jat farmers were involved in the protests from Haryana,” said the leader.

The Congres leadership also failed to bring together the rival factions. Rajdeep Surjewala remained focused on Kaithal, where his son contested, and a few nearby constituencies. Former Union minister Kumari Selja confined herself to Sirsa. “I could not convince Hooda to campaign with Surjewala and Selja. The three power centres of Haryana remained isolated islands,” said the first leader.

Another leader involved in the campaign said the party’s decision to decline Selja the ticket went against the party’s interest. “Selja is a former Union minister and a key SC [scheduled caste] face. She is no pushover. ...there are 17% Dalit voters and the BJP quickly highlighting how Selja was sidelined...the [BJP]...invited Selja to join the party,” said the third leader.

Congress leaders cited the Aam Aadmi Party’s deployment of young supporters and women to reach out to every household and enrol them for sops. They said they failed to do it at the desired level because they were confident about winning. “At the ground level, our campaign mostly focused on bringing Hooda to power after 10 years of BJP rule,” said a Congress functionary.

Congress leader Pawan Khera said every election has a lesson for the winner and the defeated even as he added they were getting complaints and will approach the Election Commission of India. “...no one expected this result in Haryana. This is the victory of the system and the defeat of democracy,” he said. He called the poll result unexpected and unacceptable.

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