Chandigarh: The Lok Sabha election results in Haryana have spelt doom for the Congress party’s Jat leadership in the state, with two-time chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda losing in Sonepat and son Deepender Hooda locked in an intense battle to save his Rohtak seat.
Hooda senior’s defeat to the BJP’s Ramesh Chander Kaushik in the Jat-dominated Sonepat is a huge loss of face, and a big blow to his claim to lead the Congress in the assembly elections to be held in a few months’ time.
Meanwhile, in the Hooda family’s bastion Rohtak, Deepender was trailing the BJP’s Arvind Kumar Sharma by 2,636 votes at 8:30 pm. He had won the seat three times in a row, with father Bhupinder winning four times before that. Bhupinder’s father Ranbir Singh Hooda had won the seat twice in the 1950s.
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Long-term impact
Even if the Hoodas are ousted from Rohtak, the see-saw battle with small margins would tend to suggest that Deepender’s defeat may not be irreversible. Much would depend on the Jat-versus non-Jat dynamic in Haryana, and on how the other stalwart political family representing the Jats — the warring Chautalas — conduct themselves in the future.
However, Hooda senior’s loss in Sonepat may have wider ramifications. He wants to lead the Congress in the assembly elections later this year, and the fact that he has not been able to win a Jat-dominated seat poses a big question mark over his leadership.
The Lok Sabha elections were a test for Hooda after the Congress’ national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala finished a poor third in the Jind bypoll early this year. Surjewala hinted that infighting within the party had led to his defeat. Now, after this debacle, Hooda’s opponents within the party and outside have a strong reason to reject his leadership.
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Consolation for Hooda
What may give Hooda some respite is the fact that all the senior leaders of the party who were in the fray in these elections also lost. State Congress president and the party’s Dalit face Ashok Tanwar, Hooda’s bête noire, lost from Sirsa to BJP’s Sunita Duggal, having also been defeated in 2014, by the Indian National Lok Dal’s Charanjit Singh Rori.
Rajya Sabha MP and former union minister Kumari Selja, another prominent Dalit leader, lost from Ambala.
Former chief minister Bansi Lal’s granddaughter Shruti Choudhry, daughter of MLA and Congress legislature party leader Kiran Choudhry, lost from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh. This is Shruti’s second consecutive defeat from the seat.
Haryana’s historical trend
Generally, Haryana has followed the verdict of the Lok Sabha elections in deciding who comes to power in the state. But the Lok Sabha verdicts in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, just six months after the Congress formed governments in all three states, have shown eloquently that voting behaviour for parliamentary and assembly elections can be very different.
It would be a great fallacy to write off the Congress altogether, and to pronounce its demise in Haryana. Mass politics in this state — both Jat and non-Jat — has a long, vocal and turbulent history, and the future may throw up many surprises.
The Hoodas are no pushovers, and their failure to break the Modi wave doesn’t imply their fading away from Haryana politics.
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