Five Mistakes Congress Made In Haryana

The Haryana assembly election results are out. Surprising experts, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 48 seats and 39.94 per cent votes (3.45 percentage points more than in 2019). It is well-placed to form a government on its own.

On the other hand, the Congress, which was touted by experts to cruise through comfortably, won 37 seats. Despite its vote share going up by 11 per cent, the party committed some strategic mistakes that led to its defeat.

Here are five major mistakes that cost the Congress the opportunity to rule Haryana for the next five years.

1) Rahul Gandhi’s Absence At Key Time

In 2023, anti-incumbency against the BJP government was at its peak. Not just farmers and wresters but also teachers and medical professionals, among others, were either protesting or staging strikes against the Manohar Lal government.

Panchkula alone witnessed more than 150 protests in 2023!

The Congress saw an opening and deployed Rahul Gandhi to try and capitalise on the opportunity. Gandhi went to Haryana, spent time with farmers, rode tractors, and sowed seeds.

Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi invited Haryanvi women farmers to their homes and spent time with them.

The videos of these engagements were widely circulated. They were supposed to work wonders for the Congress in the future. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the party even bagged five seats — up from zero in 2019 — and the credit for that was largely given to Gandhi.

However, the Gandhis probably became overconfident after their Lok Sabha upswing. Perhaps taking the state for granted, Gandhi travelled to the United States and left the state to the father-son duo of Bhupinder and Deepinder Hooda.

2) Hooda’s Past Record

To counter the anti-incumbency against Manohar Lal, the Congress started to pitch Bhupinder Singh Hooda for chief ministership. Hooda was the state’s chief minister between 2004 and 2014.

It was presumed that Bhupinder would take charge, and then his son, Deepender, would take up the mantle.

Notably, however, even after a decade, the senior Hooda's chief ministership is not acceptable to Haryanvis.

His tenure was mired by high crime rates, atrocities on Dalits, joblessness, controversies around Jat-dominated Khap Panchayats, and rampant corruption in government examinations.

The BJP made sure that the new generation of voters was reminded of these issues. Through its advertising campaigns — broadcast on its own as well as third-party social accounts — inefficiencies in Hooda’s tenure were highlighted.

A person handling one such account said that instead of an anti-incumbency wave against the BJP, the election ended up becoming a fresh reminder of the past anti-incumbency wave against Hooda.

3) Over-reliance On Jat Vote

One reason why the Congress decided to ride on Hooda’s leadership is because of Jat voters, who comprise 20-25 per cent of Haryana's population.

Jats are said to be unhappy with the BJP due to Manohar Lal, a Khatri, becoming chief minister.

Later, Om Prakash Dhankar, a Jat state BJP president, was also removed from his position.

The Hoodas made the impression that they had galvanised Jats in their favour. And to draw Dalit and Other Backward Class (OBC) votes, the Congress relied on its Lok Sabha strategy, centred around spreading the narrative that the BJP would change the Constitution and end reservations.

But then came Gandhi’s statement agreeing to the possibility of ending reservations. It led to a considerable section of Dalits and OBCs feeling disconnected from the party.

Moreover, Dalits and OBCs are sceptical about the Jat community due to the historical issue of discrimination and atrocities. For them, the Congress coming to power would mean Jats coming to power, and, therefore, the feeling that oppression might make a return.

4) Unresolved Congress Infighting

The Congress high command chose to ignore Haryana Congress’ internal strife.

The 'Hooda faction' had been in a multi-year political war with the 'SRK faction', represented by Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala, and Kiran Choudhary, in Haryana.

Kiran, in fact, left the Congress, and her daughter, Shruti Choudhary, won a BJP ticket from the Tosham assembly constituency. In her resignation letter, Kiran openly aired her qualms about the party being dominated by one faction (the Hoodas).

The mother-daughter duo, belonging to the Bansi Lal clan, helped in the consolidation of anti-Hooda Jat votes towards the BJP.

Surjewala also chose to stay away from campaigns and focused mainly on ensuring that his son, Aditya, wins from the Kaithal assembly seat.

But it is the differences between the Hoodas and Kumari Selja that cost the Congress dearly. The Hooda faction chose to sideline Selja, a Dalit leader and Member of Parliament (MP) from Sirsa.

Selja was also open about her differences with Hooda, which was apparent in a viral clip from one of her interviews. Selja comes from the Jatav community, which has a 13 per cent share in the state's population. 'Hooda versus Selja' therefore metamorphosed into 'Jats versus Jatavs'.

The Hooda-Selja conflict was like the last blow of the hammer on the Dalit vote that was already sliding away from the Congress.

5) Unfavourable Ticket Distribution

Huge discrepancies were reported in ticket distribution within the Haryana Congress. The responsibility of ticket distribution was handed to Sunil Kanugolu, a political consultant who founded the firm Inclusive Minds.

Kanugolu is widely seen as the second most popular political consultant after Prashant Kishor. He is credited with ensuring Congress victories in the Karnataka and Telangana assembly elections.

Kanugolu is also a close friend of Deepender Hooda. That was considered a factor in Kanugolu being given the key responsibility for the Haryana election.

He conducted a survey before the ticket distribution. Senior Congress leaders (except the Hoodas) were found unwinnable in his survey and were sidelined.

The survey later came into question, and it was alleged that Kanugolu did the survey at the behest of the Hoodas. It is said that, roughly, at least 70 of the 90 tickets were distributed to Hooda loyalists, ultimately resulting in the party’s loss.