New Delhi : As the counting of votes for the Haryana Assembly elections is underway, the ruling BJP in Haryana appears set to secure a historic third term. Numerous exit polls suggested a potential victory for Congress. However, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini had rejected these forecasts.
In contrast, Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has expressed confidence that his party will secure a decisive majority. The election marks the first major confrontation between the two national parties since the Lok Sabha elections and could greatly influence the political landscape leading up to the assembly elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi.
Here are seven possible reasons for the Congress party’s loss in the Assembly polls:
1. Due to the conflict between Selja and Hooda, the Jat-Dalit vote that had united during the Lok Sabha elections has scattered.
2. For 14 days, the BJP successfully capitalszed on Selja’s displeasure, causing hurt feelings among Dalits over the possibility of a Jat chief minister. Meanwhile, after 14 days, when Rahul was seen giving importance to Selja, it sent a message to the Jats that, if victorious, Rahul might hand over the chief minister’s chair to a Dalit woman.
3. During the ticket distribution, 70 seats went directly to Hooda’s faction, which led to ongoing dissatisfaction from Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala. As a result, both limited themselves to their respective regions.
4. The Hooda vs. SRK feud had been ongoing since the time Kiran Choudhry was in Congress. The SRK group kept accusing the in-charge, Deepak Babaria, of siding with the Hooda faction. However, neither the high command nor Deepak Babaria could manage the conflict. Even after Kiran Choudhry joined the BJP, the Hooda vs. SR feud persisted. Both Selja and Surjewala wanted to contest the elections but couldn’t get tickets due to opposition from the Hooda camp.
5. Voices are now rising within the party to end the franchise system. It is being cited that, while leaders like Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh, Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan, and Bhupesh Baghel in Chhattisgarh were given unilateral power, Bhupinder Hooda in Haryana is being favored in the same manner. In contrast, where dependence on one leader was avoided, such as in Himachal, Telangana, and Karnataka, the party succeeded in forming governments.
6. While Hooda managed to get all 25 sitting MLAs repeated, Selja got her 4 sitting members and all 29 sitting MLAs, out of which 16 lost. Hooda’s Dalit ally and state president, Uday Bhan, also lost the election.
7. To dent the Congress’s Dalit-Jat vote base, there were two alliances: JJP-Azad Samaj Party and INLD-BSP. Despite this, Haryana leaders did not form an alliance with AAP as per Rahul’s suggestion. On the contrary, the Hooda faction failed to even accommodate independents like Chitra Sarwara, who were Hooda supporters.
