Knives out in Congress after Haryana election debacle
OBC chairman Ajay Yadav said the party should introspect over its failure in the Ahirwal region where it won just one seat out of 11 seats.
Knives are out in the Congress after its debacle in the Haryana assembly elections. Former Haryana minister and party’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) chairman Ajay Yadav alleged there was poor coordination among the national and state leadership and that the party’s national general secretary, KC Venugopal remained unreachable.
Yadav said the party should introspect over its failure in the Ahirwal region where it won just one seat out of 11 seats.
“Ahirwal has no representation in the Congress Working Committee, party’s central election committee, All India Congress Committee or the Haryana Pradesh Congress committee. The party has appointed me as OBC national chairman which is of no use as it is toothless. We lost the election because there was no coordination with the state and national leadership,” he said.
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He further said, “When the party’s state in-charge Deepak Babria was hospitalised, why was his duty not assigned to another leader. Party’s state chief Udai Bhan himself was contesting, that’s why he failed to take proper feedback and help the candidates in finalising the strategy.”
A former minister, Yadav said that the senior party leaders from AICC had asked him to make arrangements for Rahul Gandhi’s roadshow but the leader never visited his area.
“We finalised Kumari Selja’s programme in Rewari and she expressed unwillingness to come because of the unavailability of chopper. Our sitting MLA from Ferozepur Jhirka, Mamman Khan’s statement also went against us. He won by a huge margin because majority of voters were Muslim there but we lost due to his controversial remarks. The campaign was spearheaded by individuals and other leaders were missing. We lost due to polarisation and poor election management,” Yadav added.
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Senior Congress leader and Rohtak MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra said they lost the election due to poor management and overconfidence of party leaders and workers.
“In the last week of the campaign, huge polarisation of SCs and OBCs was seen and that worked for the BJP. We have to re-think where we lacked,” he added.
On being asked about former Assandh MLA Shamsher Singh Gogi’s remark that party lost due to infighting and over reliance on former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Batra said this was not true. He said Gogi’s remarks are biased as speaks against Hooda whenever he gets a chance.
A senior Congress leader, who unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls, said that senior party leaders in the state remained active in ensuring defeat of party candidates, who are aligned to different factions.
“Our top leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja, Ajay Yadav and Randeep Surjewala did not share a stage even once. In two rallies, Hooda and Selja remained present but other leaders were missing. The BJP got success by telling people that all is not well in the Haryana Congress and assembly results are a reflection of that,” the leader added.