Haryana on the ropes in tug-of-war ahead of 2024 Assembly elections

It wants to form a government , but the Congress is riven by internal differences

Troubles continue to mount for the Congress party as there are signs of brewing discontent from the factions in the party in Haryana which will go to polls in 18 months. The sad irony is that the party is not even in government in the state.

Tosham Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and senior Congress leader Kiran Choudhry last week in a public assembly advised senior party leaders to take everyone together to bring the party to power in the upcoming Assembly elections scheduled around October 2024.

Choudhry warned: “The party can be strengthened only if all strong leaders come together and it is the responsibility of the people occupying party posts to take all leaders along, but if the game of noora kushti (shadowboxing) continues, it will hurt the party’s prospects.”

Choudhry’s words were aimed at former chief minister (CM) Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who has been enjoying the central leadership’s support.

Reacting to Choudhry’s statement, political observers say the Congress is likely to repeat the Rajasthan or Punjab episode in Haryana in the days to come.

“Congress has had a long history of revolts in the state. This time its internal squabbles are less noticeable because the top leadership has strongly dissuaded its leaders from assailing each other in public,” says a Congress leader from the state unit.

Although experts feel Hooda does not face any major challenge, they agree it could hurt the party’s prospects in the approaching polls.

“Since a majority of Hooda’s rivals have either left the party or are not mass leaders, he is unlikely to face any major challenge. However, those who are still there have the ear of the leadership. But this will have little impact on Hooda’s autonomy,” says Vijay Chauhan, assistant professor and head of the Department of Political Science, Maharana Pratap National College, Mullana.

There are at least four groups within the Haryana Congress, with the Hooda camp being the most powerful in terms of politics.

The three others include one led by former CM Bansi Lal’s daughter-in-law Kiran Choudhry, another by Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala, and a fringe group steered by former Union minister Kumari Selja.

There has been infighting in the Congress since the creation of the state. After the state’s separation from Punjab in 1966, Bhagwat Dayal Sharma took charge as CM. However, he ruled for less than six months.

Rao Birender Singh, Speaker in Sharma’s government, revolted against the Congress and formed the Vishal Haryana Party and became CM.

Thirty years after the first coup in the Congress, a long-time Congressman and Gandhi family loyalist, Bansi Lal, also revolted in 1996 and founded his Haryana Vikas Party.

A decade later, three-time CM Bhajan Lal also severed ties with the Congress when he was denied the top post after Congress returned to power with the highest-ever majority in 2005. Bhajan Lal also founded his Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC).

Although the three estranged Congressmen formed their own outfits, oddly enough they ended up merging with the Congress.

The loss

Although the Congress was able to bring all the alienated leaders into its fold, political observers say they are anything but chuffed.

After Hooda became CM in 2005, the buried hatchets started to re-emerge, resulting in the Congress losing its majority in the 2009 Assembly election.

In 2009, Hooda was able to form the government with the support of Independent MLAs and the HJC defectors.

The Congress paid the price in the 2014 election when it won just 15 seats of the 90.

Ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Rao Birender Singh’s son and Union Cabinet Minister in Manmohan Singh’s government, Rao Inderjit Singh, quit the Congress. His father, a Congressman for four decades, followed suit. Both alleged Hooda was responsible for their resignation.

Just ahead of the 2019 Assembly elections, the party faced fresh challenges when Rahul Gandhi’s loyalist and former state president Ashok Tanwar called it quits, alleging the Congress was going through an existential crisis — not because of its political opponents but because of serious internal contradiction.

Bhajan Lal’s son Kuldeep Bishnoi, who merged his party with the Congress in 2016, also left the party and challenged Hooda to contest an election against him or his son from his Adampur constituency.

Although the party leadership has changed the state chief twice since 2019, the key organisational posts remain vacant. The party is yet to appoint vice-presidents, secretaries, district chiefs or block heads. Its youth, farmer, and Dalit wings, too, are rudderless.

Political scientists say the Congress state unit has failed to build the cadre that could fight the might of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ground-level workers.

“The Congress leadership will face a Punjab- and Rajasthan-like situation in Haryana. If it decides to make changes, Hooda will make the call Captain Amarinder Singh made. If it doesn’t make any changes, the leadership will lose authority as it did in Rajasthan,” says a political observer.

Udai Bhan, president, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee, however, argues that there is no factionalism in the Congress.

“The selection process for all the vacant posts has been finalised. These posts have been vacant since 2014. We have, however, completed the process and sent it to the leadership for approval,” says Bhan.