NEW DELHI: The Congress is still smarting from its shocking loss in Haryana. The party leadership has formed a fact-finding committee and has also approached the Election Commission of India seeking probe into “discrepancies” found in some Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the counting of votes. However, a section of the state unit blames the “Hooda Congress” for the party’s stunning defeat.
Several state Congress leaders have openly targeted former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his MP son Deepender Hooda for riding roughshod on other state leaders and imposing their will on all important decisions including ticket distribution. Some even allege sabotage by the father-son duo. Senior Congress leader Kumari Selja, who had stayed away from most part of party’s campaign, had also openly expressed her unhappiness over the domination of Hooda camp in ticket distribution.
Former Congress MLA Shamsher Singh Gogi, who lost the Assandh seat to BJP leader Yoginder Singh Rana, said the blame for defeat rests with “bapu-beta”. “Congress would not have lost, ‘Hooda Congress’ was contesting the election and they lost, they didn’t take anyone into confidence. They created a communication gap inside the party. Had the election been contested properly, people wanted Congress govt this time, the responsibility (of the defeat) lies with ‘bapu-beta’,” Gogi told news agency ANI.
Congress candidate Parvinder Pal Pari, who lost in Ambala Cantt, had also accused Bhupinder Hooda and Deepender Hooda of conspiring against him by supporting an Independent candidate. Pari, who is aligned with the Selja faction of the party, described the result as not a defeat of the Congress, but rather of the “B-D gang” (Bhupinder-Deepender), alleging their vested interest in promoting their own agenda over party unity.
Is there merit in these allegations?
A close analysis of the results shows that Congress suffered in 12 seats due to the presence of Independents, most of whom had entered the fray as rebels after being denied tickets by the party.
The Independents won 3 assembly seats in Haryana, were at second position on 7 seats and came third on 30. Of the 7 Independents who ended up being runners-up, four were Congress rebels. Again on the 30 seats where Independents came third, in 12, the defeat margin of Congress candidate was less than the votes polled by the Independent candidate. These seats were: Badhra, Uchana Kalan, Gohana, Dadri, Kalka, Mahendargarh, Rai, Rania, Safidon, Samalkha, Sohna and Tosham. Clearly, better ticket distribution may have helped the Congress win some of these seats.
The BJP also suffered due to Independents, but only on 2 assembly seats – Kalayat and Prithla. The safffron party, which was on the backfoot, ensured to woo back most of the rebels. However, the Congress, which was “overconfident” of victory, perhaps underestimated the adverse impact of rebels in the fray and did not do enough to reach out to them.
The Congress leadership needs to introspect. Did it make a mistake by putting all its bets on Bhupinder Singh Hooda at the cost of other state leaders? Also did the Congress jump the gun on blaming the EVMs?
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