Chandigarh:The Congress might have won the recent assembly bypoll in Haryana, but the party’s state unit is in shambles given that crucial organisational posts have been lying vacant for the past six years.
Its top office bearers include state president Kumari Selja, a general secretary and a treasurer. The party has no district presidents. Part of the problem is the high command’s seeming inability to check factional infighting.
Haryana Congress leaders say the current state of affairs is due to former party president Rahul Gandhi’s consistent attempt to undermine former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who made a spectacular match out of what was dead rubber for the party in the last assembly election held in October 2019.
In the run up to the polls, the high command had denied tickets to many Hooda loyalists and then left him to fend for himself, said party leaders close to Hooda. Hooda, however, put up a valiant show, helping the Congress win 31 seats while the BJP secured 40. In the recent Baroda bypoll held earlier this month, the high command again overruled Hooda’s choice of candidate. Yet again, Hooda managed a victory with the candidate thrust upon him.
“This victory, however, is unlikely to change the situation within the party since Gandhi has been refusing to give primacy to Hooda, the only bankable mass leader Congress currently has in the state. In fact the Baroda bypoll is the beginning of another Mahabharat in Haryana, within the Congress,” said a former MLA close to Hooda.
Ineffective party structure?
Kumari Selja was appointed state president last September, replacing Ashok Tanwar just ahead of the assembly polls. In more than one year since, key organisational posts remain vacant. The party has no vice presidents, secretaries, district chiefs or block heads. Its youth, farmer and Dalit wings too are rudderless.
General secretary Dr Ajay Chaudhary, said they have been working on organising the party.
“First we got busy in the assembly elections. Then delay has largely been due to Covid and the subsequent lockdown. After that, there was the farmer’s agitation followed by the Baroda bypoll. The organisation structure is being worked upon and should be in place very soon,” he said.
But highly placed sources in the party told ThePrint the real struggle has been the bringing together of various factions and getting them to agree to a common team.
Ashok Tanwar, who quit the party ahead of the 2019 assembly election, concurred.
“In Haryana, every leader is an island in itself … One of the main reasons that the Congress is in this state is because nobody can work as a team. When I was the president of the party for five years, the Hooda camp made sure nobody cooperated with me. And yet, I did whatever I could and that is the reason that the party could show a decent performance in the assembly election,” said Tanwar.
A former Youth Congress president, Tanwar was appointed Haryana Congress chief in February 2014 by Rahul Gandhi. Thereafter, the party faced defeat in three successive elections — assembly polls in 2014 and Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019. Weeks before the 2019 assembly election, Tanwar was replaced with Selja while Hooda was made the campaign committee chairman. Tanwar left the party and announced his support for the newly formed Jannayak Janata Party ahead of the assembly polls.
With no state body and district functionaries appointed since Tanwar’s time, the Congress seemingly lacks a coordinated campaign. Various leaders have been holding individual press conferences, announcing their own programmes and carrying out individual rallies with little support to or from one another.
Following the Baroda victory, Rajya Sabha MP and Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son, Deepender Hooda announced that a workers’ meeting will be organised in Gohana in December to chalk out the future course of action. However, there has been no reiteration of this programme by the state party chief.
Instead, Selja, along with Chaudhury and state incharge Vivek Bansal, has been organising programmes on Nehru, women upliftment and Dalits issue. However, rarely have these programmes seen participation from other senior state party leaders.
The Chandigarh office of the Congress has been running on skeletal staff that looks after the activities of the president and the general secretary.
Also read: A spurned satrap & burning egos — warning signs Congress ignored in Haryana for 5 yrs
Chronic factionalism
The Congress, in 2014, lost to the BJP after holding power for 10 years. This resulted in the state unit breaking into several camps.
The largest faction was led by Hooda, who had the support of the majority of MLAs. Randeep Surjewala, who is closer to Rahul Gandhi, became another power centre. Former chief minister Bansi Lal and daughter-in-law and MLA Kiran Chaudhari had their own group of loyalists, while former finance minister Captain Ajay Yadav had carved out his own pressure group within the party.
When Tanwar was made the state party chief by Rahul Gandhi he was seen as a political lightweight. Despite repeated electoral debacles, the high command continued with Tanwar whose five-year tenure was marked by constant infighting and inability to revive the organisation. These factions have largely remained as they were for the past several years.
Even in the Baroda bypoll, beginning with the decision on poll candidates and right up to the victory, the internal tussle among Congress leaders was palpable despite attempts to appear united.
Hooda’s first choice of candidate Kapoor Singh Narwal, a strong Jat leader in the area was rejected by the party high command because he was a BJP rebel. Selja, who has the support of Vivek Bansal, the party incharge for the state was believed to be behind the move.
Power tussle and ‘weak’ state chiefs
Hooda’s supporters say the former CM is being saddled with “weak” state chiefs who have no mass base or organisational skills, hurting the party’s prospects in the long run.
“Had Hooda been given a free hand over the party ahead of the 2019 assembly polls, results of the elections would have been different. Whether the high command likes it or not, Hooda is the face of the Congress in Haryana and in not trusting him fully, the high command is always sending confusing signals to Congress supporters in the state,” said a former MLA and close aide of Hooda.
However a close aid to Selja countered this, noting there is an internal feud ongoing.
“During assembly elections, he (Hooda) could not digest the fact that apart from him, Selja’s opinion too would be considered before tickets are distributed. Since then, he has carried a grudge against her,” he said. Multiple party functionaries in Delhi and Haryana, who are not affiliated to any camp, however, told ThePrint that 29 out of the 31 Congress candidates who won were Hooda loyalists while candidates picked up by his detractors, including Selja and Randeep Singh Surjewala, bit the dust. If Hooda had been given a free hand in candidate selection, the Congress would have romped home, said sources.
Selja, a former MP from Ambala, was defeated by BJP’s Rattan Lal Kataria during the last parliamentary polls. Selja had defeated him earlier in 2004 and 2009. Ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when ‘Modi wave’ seemed to be sweeping the country, she informed the high command that she wouldn’t like to contest. Sonia Gandhi rewarded her with a Rajya Sabha berth.
Selja draws her strength from her closeness with the Gandhi family and works in close coordination with Bansal, the party incharge. Party sources said the high command tries to balance the otherwise Jat-centric politics in the state by appointing a Dalit state chief. Both Tanwar and Selja are Dalits but they are inconsequential in terms of consolidating the Congress’ support base in the community.
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