Gurugram: Karamveer Bauddh, the Rajya Sabha nominee of the Haryana Congress, is not a name that rings a bell even among party workers in the state.
Bauddh has never contested an election, never led a major agitation, and never held any significant organisational post in the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee. Yet, it is Bauddh, and not other aspirants like former state Congress president Udai Bhan, former MLA Jaiveer Valmiki or former MP Ashok Tanwar who the party high command has given a ticket for the Rajya Sabha.
Thursday is the last day for filing nominations. The BJP has already announced former MP Sanjay Bhatia as its candidate. If no third candidate enters the fray, the two seats will be split between the BJP and Congress without contest.
A third nomination would push the election to March 16.
Rahul’s Call
So why Karamveer Bauddh? The short answer: it was Rahul Gandhi’s choice. Congress leaders ThePrint spoke to said that the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha personally recommended Bauddh’s name, and that sealed the decision.
Senior party leaders in Haryana, many of whom had been lobbying hard for themselves or their candidates, found themselves with little option but to fall in line. Party leaders told ThePrint that the Congress had already decided internally that the ticket would go to a candidate from the Scheduled Caste community.
Four names were doing the rounds—Bauddh, former state chief Udai Bhan, former MLA Jaiveer Valmiki, and former MP Ashok Tanwar. In the end, it was Bauddh.
All About Bauddh
Karamveer Bauddh, who hails from the Meham Assembly segment of Rohtak district, retired in 2023 as a Superintendent from the Haryana Civil Secretariat.
He was involved in the secretariat’s procurement and caretaking functions. His service record, however, was not without controversy: at one he was point suspended over allegations related to a fire in a store under his charge.
After retirement, Bauddh formally joined the Congress party and has since been listed as one of 47 National Convenors of the Scheduled Castes Department of the All India Congress Committee on the AICC website.
Three reasons behind the choice
Party insiders point to three factors that made Bauddh an acceptable choice, even though surprising. First, his SC background. With Congress committed to fielding a Dalit candidate, Bauddh fits the bill.
Second, his lack of factional baggage. Unlike the other names in contention, Bauddh is not associated with any group or camp within Haryana Congress—not the Hooda camp, not the Selja camp, not any other. In a state unit perpetually torn by internal rivalries, this neutrality was apparently seen as a virtue rather than a weakness. He was viewed as a balanced, broadly acceptable face.
Party insiders say that the third, and which could be the most important one, appears to be his association with the IPS Y Puran Kumar suicide case, which had shaken Haryana’s political and administrative establishment in October 2025.
The Y Puran Kumar connection
A 2001 batch IPS officer from the Scheduled Caste community serving in Haryana, Y Puran Kumar is alleged to have committed suicide by gunshot at his Chandigarh residence on October 7, 2025.
The officer’s wife, Amneet P. Kumar, herself an IAS officer of 2001 batch had alleged in a complaint given to the Chandigarh Police that her husband had been driven to take this extreme step due to persistent harassment by senior officers, naming then DGP Shatrujeet Kapur and then Rohtak SP Narinder Bijarniya among others. The officer’s final note, too, had held the two responsible.
The case became a flashpoint, with political leaders opposed to the BJP rallying behind the IPS officer’s family, who had refused to allow a post-mortem examination and cremation for over a week.
Karamveer Bauddh was among those who publicly led the agitation demanding justice for Puran Kumar.
Rahul Gandhi visited the officer’s family in Chandigarh, a move that put pressure on the then BJP government and eventually forced it to yield to the family’s demands for action against the named officers.
Bauddh’s role in that agitation, and his association with Rahul Gandhi at a moment when Gandhi personally engaged with the issue, appears to have left a favourable impression at the top level of the party.
Another Congress leader told The Print that he was also active during Deepender Singh Hooda’s Lok Sabha campaign from Rohtak in May 2024 and participated in party programmes during the October 2024 Haryana assembly elections, where he had himself been a contender for the ticket from Mullana in Ambala district. That seat eventually went to Pooja Chaudhry, wife of Ambala MP Varun Chaudhry.
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Party rank and file not amused
Behind the scenes, Haryana Congress leaders are struggling to hide their dismay. A senior Congress leader and sitting MLA, who spoke to ThePrint on condition of anonymity, did not mince words: “We were shocked. Yes, he is in the AICC’s SC Department, and yes, he was active in the 2024 elections. Even before his retirement, as a leader of SC employees, he used to invite Congress leaders to Ambedkar Jayanti functions. But there were far more experienced and deserving candidates—Udai Bhan alone has given decades to this party and lost from Hathin in 2024. It’s hard to explain this choice to workers on the ground.”
Another senior leader admitted the disappointment was real and widespread, but said there was little the state leadership could do. “The high command has decided. We will follow,” he said.
Asked whether BJP’s possible support to an independent, if one were to contest, could upset the arithmetic, the Congress MLA said the party MLAs would abide by the high command’s direction regardless.
The optics
Jyoti Mishra, an assistant professor of political science at Amity University, Mohali, and a former researcher at the Centre for Study on Developing Societies (CSDS), told ThePrint that for the Congress, the choice carries an implicit political message.
“The party is doubling down on its Dalit outreach and its constitutional narrative, particularly the ‘Samvidhan Bachao’ campaign in which Bauddh has been an active participant. It also reflects Rahul Gandhi’s tendency to reach beyond the established political class when making key choices,” Mishra said.
Whether Karamveer Bauddh can grow into the role of a Rajya Sabha MP, with no prior electoral or legislative experience, remains to be seen. For now, his stunned colleagues in Haryana Congress are learning to live with a choice they did not see coming.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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