Congress’s fatal flaw: Putting all eggs in Hooda basket

A week before polling on October 5, a young Congress candidate from a constituency near Faridabad frantically dialled a central leader and complained that no state-level leader had visited the constituency to campaign for him.

Midway into the campaign, a senior Congress leader participated in a few rallies with former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda—the man at the forefront of the party’s campaign —and found attendance flagging. He suggested to the state leadership that they engage women in every village to reach out to voters to enrol them for the seven guarantees the party was offering, a campaign strategy that worked for it in Karnataka and then Telangana. The suggestion was overlooked.

Congress leaders involved in the poll management argue that the infighting and over-confidence affected the campaign around the party’s seven guarantees that included ₹2000 per month for women and hiring 2 lakh people for government jobs.

“In Punjab (ahead of the 2022 elections), the Aam Aadmi Party deployed young supporters and women to reach out to every household and enrol the family members for various sops. We failed to do this at a desired level because we were confident that we were winning. At the ground level, our campaigns mostly focused on bringing Hooda to power after ten years of BJP rule,” they said.

As the shockwaves of an unexpected defeat in Haryana gripped the Congress party, leaders highlighted three key issues that cost the party another state in north India: overdependence on the Hooda family’s leadership and on the Jat community; a shoddy campaign; and the Haryana unit’s inability to address internal fractures.

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

It was obvious after the national election, in which the Congress won five of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state, that the two parties were on an almost even keel in the state. “It was clear that Haryana elections will not be a walkover. Yet, we failed to give the extra push,” said another senior Congress leader.

A third leader pointed to the over-reliance on the Hoodas and the excessive focus on Jats, a dominant community accounting for nearly 25% of Haryana population. “We spoke about issue of the wrestlers, who were Jats. The farmers’ issues and their protests were also a major issue but if you look at it, primarily, only Jat farmers were involved in the protests from Haryana.”

The Congress’ top leadership also failed to bring together its warring factions. Randeep Surjewala remained focused on Kaithal where his son was a candidate (and won), and on a few nearby constituencies. Selja remained confined 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.

The third leader told HT from Chandigarh that the party’s decision to refuse Kumari Selja a ticket to contest went against the party’s interests. “Selja is a former Union minister and a key SC face of the party. She is no pushover. In Haryana, there are 17% Dalit votes and the BJP quickly launched a campaign highlighting how Selja has been sidelined and the Haryana CM even invited Selja to join the BJP.”

Congress leader Pawan Khera described the poll result as unexpected , although he was quick to cry foul.

“Every election has a lesson for the winner and the defeated. The Haryana result is unexpected and unacceptable. We are getting so many complaints. We will approach the EC on these issues. This is the victory of the system and the defeat of democracy,” he said.