How Congress infighting and squabbles spelled doom for party in Haryana

The cheerful and upbeat atmosphere in Congress, in the run-up to the Haryana Assembly elections, turned into a nightmare on Tuesday as the election results gave a clear mandate and absolute majority to the BJP, despite the latter facing a three-time anti-incumbency.

For Congress, it comes as a shock defeat and for BJP a ‘surprising’ victory.

The biggest talking point now is how Congress lost the plot and gave away its much-anticipated victory to the BJP. Exit polls as well as political experts also concurred with a strong Congress wave in the state.

Bickering, infighting and internal squabbles over gaining supremacy in the party are being seen as the key reasons behind Congress's below-par performance. As different factions under Bhupinder Hooda and Kumari Selja cropped up within the state unit, it did no good to the party and only weakened its clout.

Even before the Assembly elections, the Haryana Congress was split wide open with several factions emerging within the state unit. Internal squabbling had begun, with party veterans including Bhupinder Hooda, Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala all angling for the Chief Minister post and they didn’t shy away from making their ambition public. Attempts by the party high command to quell the discontent and discord within went in vain.

The result of this was that the BJP despite facing strong anti-incumbency, farmers’ wrath and wrestlers’ protests returned to power for a record third time.

Congress’ dreams and hopes of making a comeback remain shattered now. Importantly, there is no external force to blame for this. Despite being the 'favourites' to win Haryana, the party has been kicked out of the electoral race.

The factional feud, led by Hooda and Selja and their collective rejection of Rahul’s idea is seen as another reason for shock electoral loss. Their Internal quarrels and squabbles played out in the open as both Hooda and Selja pitched for their candidates during ticket distribution.

As Hooda’s 72 ‘loyalists’ got a greater share in ticket allocation, the sulking Selja opted out of the party's campaign for about two weeks and was only brought after coaxing and cajoling by the Congress high command.

Her, being the Dalit face of Congress, gave the BJP further ammunition to trade more barbs at the ‘divided’ party.

Just before ticket allocation for Assembly elections, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had mooted the idea of stitching a pre-poll alliance with INDIA bloc allies including AAP but it was rejected by state unit leaders. The reason was – their belief and overconfidence that anti-incumbency would dislodge Nayab Singh Saini's government from power. Also, the party’s remarkable performance in Lok Sabha elections gave it hope of a rebound in the state but that came a cropper.

Congress party's debacle in the 2019 Assembly elections was also attributed to an internal feud. With the 2024 Assembly elections going the same way, the party seems to have learnt no lessons from its past mistakes.