How often does a party simply not turn up for an election?

This is seemingly what happened to the Congress in the just-concluded municipal polls in Haryana, where it found itself completely routed. The Haryana Nagar Nigam election, held less than six months after the assembly polls, was a telling commentary on the state of the Congress, besieged by factional feuds and desertions.

For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won nine of the ten mayoral positions, the election proved to be the icing on the cake after its third consecutive victory in the assembly polls last year. The mayoral poll in Manesar was won by an independent, closely trailed by the BJP, with the Congress ending up a distant third.

The problems in the faction-ridden Haryana Congress compounded in the aftermath of the assembly loss—which, ironically, it was widely tipped to win following the turnaround in the Lok Sabha polls last year.

Acting On Expected Lines

Perhaps choosing to fight the municipal polls on the party symbol in order to galvanise voters is what backfired on the already beleaguered Congress this time. In the past, the party did not field candidates for municipal polls on the party symbol, a technicality that gave it some advantage.

The spate of desertions in the run-up to the polls also added to its woes. Notable leaders such as Ram Niwas Rara, Tarlochan Singh and Bishan Lal Saini were among the 30-odd leaders who switched camps ahead of the election. Rara had sought a ticket for the mayoral post from the Congress in Hissar. After the party denied this to him, he filed his nomination as an independent—before the BJP got him on board. As for Tarlochan Singh, in 2019 and in the 2024 by-election, respectively, he had been the Congress candidate in Karnal against former chief ministers Manohar Lal Khattar and Nayab Singh Saini. The third leader, Bishan Lal Saini, a two-time MLA from Radaur, lost the 2024 election to the BJP.

Ever since 2014, when Ashok Tanwar replaced Phool Chand Mullana as the Haryana Congress chief, the Congress organisation in the state has been in a shambles. There are no permanent office-bearers, down to the block level, leaving the party to come up with ad-hoc lists before every election. This has been mostly on account of the turf wars between former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the Pradesh Congress Committee chiefs.

Even after Uday Bhan, the incumbent backed by Hooda, was named as PCC chief in 2022, a proper organisational structure could not be evolved. In the aftermath of the rout in the assembly polls, Bhan had even come up with a list of office-bearers for the municipal polls, but it did not receive an official nod due to a lack of consultation with the rival camp.

Following this, Deepak Babaria, the general secretary in-charge of the state, proposed another list, which the Hood camp shot down. Just before the polls, Babaria was replaced as the general secretary by B.K. Hariprasad. In the end, Hooda did not even campaign for the party in the polls, possibly as a face-saving measure.

Missing Case of LoP

The Congress snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Haryana last year. But it has failed to course-correct. Months after the government formation and even after three sittings of the assembly, the Congress has not named a Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state. The Haryana Congress is dominated by the faction led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, with 32 of the 37 legislators backing the two-term chief minister, and the rest being aligned with the camp led by Kumari Shelja.

Hooda's hubris and high-handedness are widely seen to be the reason for the Congress's loss last year. As many as 72 of the 90 tickets were allocated according to his wishes. Hooda and Shelja were sniping at each other publicly in the run-up to the polls, and even a handshake initiated by Rahul Gandhi in public betrayed the discomfort between them. This rift gave ammunition to the BJP—initially almost resigned to a defeat—to convert this election into a Jat-versus-non-Jat campaign, which ultimately decided the contest. 

Having given Hooda free rein, the Congress now urgently needs to fix responsibility. That means ensuring that the LoP position is given to a leader not from the Hooda camp, to counterbalance the PCC chief. Hooda, in turn, is naturally not willing to relent. He is keen on having someone from his own camp as the LoP, if not himself; names of veterans such as Ashok Arora and Geeta Bhukkal—a Dalit leader—have already been proposed.

A Counterbalance to Hooda

As for the Congress high command, it is keen to install former deputy chief minister Chander Mohan as the LoP, who revived his floundering career by winning an election for the first time since 2005. Mohan, a five-time MLA and elder son of Haryana's most famous chief minister, Bhajan Lal, was deposed under ignominious circumstances in 2008. 

The Congress leadership reckons that nominating Mohan as LoP will also pave the way for his younger brother, Kuldeep Bishnoi, to come back to the party. While Bishnoi has been sidelined ever since he joined the BJP, his son, Bhavya, lost the family bastion of Adampur on the saffron party's ticket in last year's assembly polls.

The realisation has finally dawned on the Congress top brass that it needs to trim down Hooda's grip over the party in Haryana. More importantly, it has realised that this task can't be accomplished by Shelja alone. Ever since he became chief minister in 2005, Hooda has meticulously ensured the ouster or marginalisation of his opponents in the party—especially the political clans that have had a long association with the Congress. Veterans such as Bhajan Lal, Birender Singh and Rao Inderjeet Singh quit the party during his two chief ministerial terms from 2005 to 2015. In the months preceding the assembly polls in 2024, former LoP Kiran Choudhry and Shruti Choudhry of the Bansi Lal clan had also quit the Congress, again on account of Hooda's domination (Choudhry is a minister in Nayab Singh Saini's government today).

Just A 'Jat Party' Now?

Hooda's domination has only ended up projecting the Congress as a ‘Jat party' in Haryana, seriously hampering its earlier image of being an umbrella party that catered to various stakeholders. That 18 of the 21 OBC faces the Congress fielded lost in the assembly polls, with all seven of its candidates being routed in the Yadav-dominated Ahirwal belt, is a story that merits attention. Congress veteran Ajay Singh Yadav, who hails from the Ahirwal region, even quit the party after the election protesting his sidelining, though eventually, the Congress leadership managed to persuade him to return. 

The trouble with the Congress high command's plan to anoint Chander Mohan as LoP is that Hooda is unlikely to extend his cooperation to his former Deputy Chief Minister. The party relies on Hooda to get crowds to New Delhi for various protests, and is thus careful about not rubbing the veteran the wrong way. Hooda, after all, is a leader with a formidable mass appeal, and he cannot be taken lightly.

The fact, though, remains that the Haryana Congress cannot be in a state of inertia for long. Changes have to be rung in if it needs to move ahead. It's the BJP, which has been having a free run in the assembly without an LoP, and Nayab Singh Saini, coming into his own as a Chief Minister in the bargain, who are ultimately benefiting from the Congress's steady decay in Haryana.

(Anand Kochukudy is a senior journalist and columnist)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author