Rahul Gandhi shaking hands with Kumari Selja and Hooda in a rally.
New Delhi: Despite the alleged atmosphere against the government in Haryana, Congress suffered a crushing defeat and the party failed to form the government. Why did Congress lose in Haryana? Many of its side effects and reasons have started coming to light. Factionalism in the state was also a major reason for the defeat. Let us know the big reasons for Congress’s defeat.
Congress gets a crushing defeat in Jat vs others in Haryana
In Haryana, BJP benefited from the counter polarization of 35 other communities against one community i.e. Jats and is now going to form the government in the state for the third time. From ticket distribution to rebel candidates, Congress also played an important role in keeping Congress away from power for the third time.
The disintegrated Congress did not get the support of the public.
The Congress party, which won five out of 10 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha elections, appeared scattered in the Legislative Assembly elections. Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda dominated the ticket distribution in the state, which angered Sirsa MP Kumari Selja and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala. While Surjewala was seen working hard in the election campaign only to make his son win in Kaithal, Kumari Shailja did not participate in the campaign for the first 12 to 14 days of the election campaign.
No state organization in the state since 2009
The state unit of Congress in Haryana has not been formed since 2008-2009. Although the state unit of the party was formed in 2014, the booth and district committees could not be formed due to factionalism. In 2022, state in-charge Vivek Bansal made a list for the formation of State Congress Committee but this committee never came into existence. Overall, factionalism is so prevalent in the party that Congress has not had any organization at the booth level and district level in the state for 15 years.
Alliance with AAP did not happen despite Rahul Gandhi’s wishes
There were about 12 seats in Haryana, where the party had to face defeat due to Congress rebels. Ballabhgarh, Bahadurgarh, Pundri, Ambala Cantt, Tigaon, Guhana, Asand, Uchana Kalan, Safido, Mahendragarh, Rai, Raniya. Congress candidates lost on these seats because of rebel Congress candidates.
Aam Aadmi Party got more votes than the margin of defeat of Congress candidate on 7 seats.
There were about seven seats in Haryana in which Aam Aadmi Party candidates got more votes than the margin of defeat of Congress candidates. Had there been an alliance, perhaps the results would have been different.
Congress did not get any benefit from Ashok Tanwar’s entry just a day before the elections.
Jat votes also got dispersed from the Congress party by getting Ashok Tanwar, who left the Congress party and joined BJP after fighting with Bhupendra Singh Hooda, to join the party just a day before the elections. The election results show that Jat voters were in favor of INLD in some places including Sirsa. Tanwar comes from Sirsa district and is also a Dalit but Congress did not get the benefit of this.
Dalit vote bank dispersed from Congress
Kumari Selja and Ashok Tanwar come from Dalit community and are considered big leaders of Dalits of the state, but these people could not transfer the votes of their community to Congress.