Marred by sharp division among its cadres and leaders over the party’s State leadership, the Congress in Haryana seems to be in disarray ahead of the Assembly elections which are due in October.
Hinting that all is not well in the grand old party, State Congress chief Ashok Tanwar held a meeting in Gurugram a few days ago to prepare for the Assembly elections but none of the sitting MLAs attended it. Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had organised a meeting of his loyalists last month apparently to put pressure on the central leadership to clear the air on the issue of State leadership.
The two factions had an ugly spat over the leadership issue in a meeting held soon after the general election results, in the presence of AICC general secretary and Haryana in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad, with Mr. Tanwar refusing to step down from his post.
Divided house
A large section of the party, including the sitting MLAs, has long been demanding that Mr. Hooda be made the party’s State unit chief in place of Mr. Tanwar. Though the appointment of Mr. Hooda as the party’s State coordination committee chairman just before the general election pacified his supporters a bit, the infighting resumed after the party suffered one of its worst defeats ever, losing all 10 parliamentary seats to the ruling BJP.
Political analysts believe that more than the factionalism, the delay on the part of the central leadership to settle the State leadership issue has hit the Congress harder. For almost five years the party has not had any units at the district and block levels, putting it at a disadvantage vis-a-vis its main rival BJP, which is in the process of appointing ‘panna pramukhs’ (page in-charge at the booth level) in the State.
The Congress, which seemed to be upbeat over a year ago with huge turnout in the public meetings of its leaders, gradually lost the momentum as the party high command kept mum on the infighting and the leadership issue. The consecutive losses for the Congress in the municipal elections, Jind bypoll and then the general election have proved that the situation has only worsened for the party in the State.
Though the Congress failed to win a single Lok Sabha seat in Haryana, it had led in around a dozen Assembly segments, mostly in the Rohtak-Sonipat region.
“While the BJP in Haryana has already started its Assembly poll preparations, the Congress seems directionless. Both the Congress cadre and the leaders are in a state of confusion. Leadership change following a loss in election has been a norm. Though much precious time has been lost, the high command would do good to settle the issue at the earliest,” said a senior party leader.
