For Congress, inflation and job losses to be key in Haryana elections campaign

Congress in Haryana gears up for state polls on issues of high unemployment, price rise, and law and order problems. Campaign slogan: "Haryana maange hisaab."

After fighting the Lok Sabha election over issues such as price rise and unemployment, the Congress is gearing up to contest the upcoming Haryana state polls on similar problems faced by the people. The party’s campaign slogan “Haryana maange hisaab” claims that the state has the highest unemployment rate in the country, highest price rise and highest crime rate.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda

“Unemployment, price rise, and law and order will be our most important political issues in our campaign. More than two lakh sanctioned posts in various departments of the government are lying vacant. More than 30 times exam papers have been leaked in the state and the unemployment rate is 37.4%,” said former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The high price of cooking gas cylinders and fuel have led to high inflation, Hooda said. “While the Social Progress Index shows Haryana has the most law and order problems, it has the third-highest kidnapping rate in the country. All these key issues would come up in our campaign,” he added.

The Congress party, out of power in Haryana since 2014, has also started its organizational preparations at the district level. The assembly election is expected in October, along with polls in Maharashtra.

“We have already held internal discussions in nearly all districts. On August 5, we will conclude the district-level talks at Palwal. People of Haryana are very angry with the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) over the issue of farmers and the treatment meted out to our athletes by the Modi government. These two issues will also prominently feature in our campaign,” Hooda said.

Taking a cue from the two marches undertaken by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Lok Sabha MP Deepender Hooda started a padyatra (foot march) on the theme of “Haryana maange hisab” from Sunday as a precursor to the main campaign that would be launched by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Gandhi closer to the elections.

But not all sections of the Congress in Haryana are happy with the poll preparations by the Hooda family. “The padyatra is an attempt to bring the Hooda family at the forefront of the Congress campaign and it’s a bid to control the leadership position in Haryana. In Haryana, there are many able leaders who can lead the party. It’s not as if we can’t win an election without the Hoodas” a Congress leader said, seeking anonymity.

The factionalism within the Congress in Haryana is a key hurdle for the opposition party has to overcome. “While Hoodas are a dominant force in the state unit, the rival camp was popularly called SRK as it had Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala and Kiran Choudhry,” the disgruntled leader said. “Choudhry has quit the Congress and joined the BJP before the Lok Sabha polls.”

The factionalism had delayed the selection of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. In the last meeting of the central election committee of the Congress on April 14, party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and former MP Kumari Selja objected to the proposed names for Bhiwani and Gurugram, who were both Hooda loyalists.

While the Congress wrested five seats from the BJP in Haryana after 10 years, it lost in Bhiwani and Gurugram.

Just as Gandhi raised key issues throughout his Bharat Jodo yatras, Hooda’s padyatra, which came to Yamunanagar on Monday, flagged major issues. “Today, during the Haryana maange hisaab campaign, I met the patients admitted in Yamunanagar civil hospital and enquired about their well-being. During this, I also met the doctors and staff of the hospital,” Hooda said. “The people of Yamunanagar are demanding an answer from the BJP that why 100 posts of doctors are vacant at the civil hospital? Why is the hospital building collapsing? Why are tiles falling everyday?”