The Haryana Congress party, which was flying high after winning half the seats in the Lok Sabha elections, is stunned by the results of the Assembly elections held just six months after that were highly contrary to its expectations. The Congress was not even dreaming of getting anything less than a two-thirds majority. The supporters of a Haryana leader had started sleeping with the Chief Minister’s seat in their lap. ‘That leader’ himself had also started speaking every word of his address in the manner of a Chief Minister. But the tables turned and the statement given by the then and BJP’s declared future Chief Minister, Nayab Saini, — ‘We have made all the arrangements for the victory’, shown a thumb to all the hopes and imaginations of the Congress by securing an absolute majority.
Now the situation is such that the Congress, which has been defeated by an unexpected seat margin, is not even able to decide the name of the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly even after almost a month has passed. People have started jokingly saying that if God forbid it had got the majority, would they have decided the name of the Chief Minister? The problem is not that it does not have the desired number of MLAs, but the problem is that to take this decision has become a noose around the neck of the weak high command. The repeated wrong decisions of the high command have axed the feet of the high command itself, paralyzing its decision-making and control power and has left it as a puppet in the hands of only one person in the state.
Who is that person, in front of whose aura the light of the high command fades? What is the reason that the high command is not able to come out of the state of indecisiveness? Why has this person become so powerful?
To find the answer to all these questions, political analysts consider the initial step taken by the Congress high command, buoyed by the massive victory in the 2005 assembly elections, to hand over the Chief Minister’s throne to Bhupinder Hooda, a Jat leader, by thrashing Bhajan Lal, the leader of non-Jats. In this election, which was fought under the leadership of former Chief Minister Chaudhary Bhajan Lal, the Congress had won 67 out of 90 seats. The high command, worried about the growing stature of Bhajan Lal, handed over the throne to a person, Bhupinder Hooda, who could be directed by the high command as per its desire, to cut Bhajan Lal’s wings.
From the very beginning, the Congress had been getting support from all castes and classes. Although the Brahmin community remained dominant there, the Dalit and backward classes also considered the Congress as their well-wisher. The Jats had accepted the farmer leader, who emerged in the form of Chaudhary Devi Lal, as their umbrella leader, taking advantage of which Bhajan Lal expanded his sphere of influence by starting Jat-non-Jat politics. As, the Jats had started moving away from the Congress, so to reunite them and to narrow down the growing circle of Bhajan Lal, the congress high command used Hooda, an alternative Jat leader, as a weapon. The Congress high command did not realize at that time that the weapon they were sharpening to cut Bhajan Lal would one day weaken the high command itself and force it to bow down.
And the results of this move started coming in the very next assembly elections. Though Bhajan Lal was ignored by the Congress party and forced to leave the party, his supporters were infuriated by this decision of the high command and the 2009 elections, which were fought under the leadership of Hooda, gave a glimpse of the result of this move by squeezing Congress to only 40 seats out of 90. Although Bhajan Lal’s own separate party, Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), won 7 seats and kept Congress below the majority mark, but a few power-hungry MLAs, who are usually readily available all the time in Haryana, snubbed the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) and supported Congress to facilitate Hooda back to power. The move of the Congress high command to reinstate Hooda further angered the non-Jat community and in the 2014 assembly elections, which were again fought under Hooda’s leadership, the Congress was restricted to 15 seats. The high command began to realize its mistake and re-inducted Bhajan Lal’s political heir Kuldeep Bishnoi in 2016 to bring the angry non-Jat community to its side. This also had an impact and in the 2019 assembly elections, the Congress’s seats increased from 15 to a respectable 31, but the Congress’s move to separate Dalit community leader Ashok Tanwar from the Congress under pressure from Hooda’s strategy also alienated the Congress from a particular community. To attract this class again, Congress made Kumari Selja take charge of the state Congress, which Hooda did not like and he slowly started reducing Selja’s stature too and finally, by preventing Selja from being sent to Rajya Sabha again, he got his own son Deepender Hooda nominated and by removing further Selja from the post of president, he got his own yes man Uday Bhan crowned and strengthened his hold on the state party.
Hooda’s next target was former Chief Minister late Chaudhary Bansi Lal’s daughter-in-law Kiran Chaudhary, he not only deprived her of the post of Congress Legislature Party leader and got himself seated on this chair, but also forced her to leave the Congress. Before this, Bhajan Lal’s son Kuldeep Bishnoi was also forced to leave the party again.
Now only Randeep Surjewala and Kumari Selja are left as the opposing voices of Hooda in the state party. To prevent Surjewala from being made a Rajya Sabha candidate from Haryana, Ajay Maken, who is close to the high command, was made the party’s nominee, but the neglected Kuldeep Bishnoi and Kiran Chaudhary gave Hooda a hard blow and Hooda’s candidate Maken had to face defeat despite having the sufficient number of MLAs. Later, the high command had to send Surjewala to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
In the recently held assembly elections, Hooda alone grabbed 72 out of 90 tickets to keep Kumari Selja and Surjewala away from claiming the Chief Minister’s chair in the state. Neglected in ticket distribution, Selja sat in ‘Kopbhavan’ (dissociating from election campaign ) for 10 days during the assembly election battle and showed her displeasure to the high command, but the high command did not pay any attention to Selja’s indifference for 10 days. And this indifference of Selja showed the Congress its true colours. Either the high command was unaware of this matter or was pretending to be unaware and not giving any attention to Selja, but the question here is whether the high command was so confident that it could see a huge victory in Haryana even without Selja or was the high command under someone’s pressure and was forced to overlook Selja’s indifference? In both the cases, the high command’s weakness and powerlessness in decision making is clearly indicated.
Why the name of the leader of the legislative party not being decided?
The Congress high command felt that the slogan of ‘Kisan- Pehlwan- Agniveer’ would give it a majority on the ground. Political thinkers believe that so much ruckus was created by the influential Jat community of Haryana that the high command felt that the Jat leader Hooda would conquer the stronghold. Hooda too, taking the sloganeering of the Jat voters as support for the Congress, was making arrangements to secure his seat as the Chief Minister and was engaged in a way to defeat his rival group instead of defeating BJP. It was appearing throughout the election as if the Congress party had turned into Hooda Congress, this election was not being fought for the party but for the personal interests.
As the Jat community getting more preference repeatedly, the OBC and the Dalit community turned away from the Congress due to Selja’s indifference. On the other hand, seeing the factionalism in Congress, the Jat community also put aside their animosity towards BJP and gave 30% votes to the BJP. As a result, Congress was left helpless and BJP got win.
Ground level political thinkers analyse that the Jats are always a divided house. While voting they never use their verdict unitedly in favour of a single candidate, rather they vote according to their village level politics, which never allows them to unite. BJP has understood this fact, whereas congress failed as its booth level roots have become defunct due to non- functioning of its organisational wings. The political analysts suggest that if the congress wants to regain its past glory in Haryana, it must have to woo its old-time core supporters such as OBC and SC categories voters by giving them a freehand representation as Leader of Opposition (LoP) and State Party President. Better they appoint a strong Ahirwal leader as state chief to get the strength in OBC, especially Yadav community and an SC leader as LoP.
After the big blow in Haryana assembly elections, now the high command felt that the local leaders of the party have ruined the party. Rahul Gandhi himself had to say – In Haryana, the leaders ignored the party’s interest and gave importance to their own interest. But what’s the use crying over the spilled milk. If Rahul Gandhi has recognised the Black Sheep, ‘Will He Dare to Kick Them Out?’
Now the high command is facing a situation of snake and shrew. They neither can shake Hooda off nor embrace him. On one hand, there is a fear of the spark of disintegration in the party and on the other hand, there is a fear of losing non-Jat votes. If Hooda is again made the leader of the legislative party, then there is a danger of the non-Jat community, especially the Dalit community, getting alienated and if Hooda or the person nominated by him is not made the leader of the legislative party , on the strength of the numbers of his supporting MLAs, Hooda may divorce the Congress and become the leader of the legislative party himself and as a result of this development in Haryana, the Congress may lose access to power in Maharashtra also. In this state of confusion, the Congress is keeping the name of the leader of the legislative party hanging. This is a very difficult situation for the Congress and the gains and losses of this decision are now reflecting not only in the state but also in the politics of the country. Let us see which way the wind blows!
Jag Mohan Thaken is a Senior Journalist, Columnist & Political Analyst, views are personal
