New Cong team has task cut out

Geetanjali Gayatri in Chandigarh

IT has been a packed season for prospective candidates and ticket hopefuls, but the Congress doesn’t seem battle-ready just yet. For the party’s state unit, it’s a race against time to make the Assembly elections a direct contest with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The installation earlier this month of the Kumari Selja-Bhupinder Singh Hooda team as the state chief of Haryana Congress and Congress Legislature Party leader-cum-chief of election management committee, respectively, is being seen as the much-needed “booster dose”, though it seems “too little, too late” for a party looking to resurrect itself. Also, the delay in the change at the top does not signal the end of Congress’ troubles.

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The state unit has been forced to go into elections without any organisational structure at the block and district levels since the constitution of these committees has been hanging fire for years. In the Lok Sabha election, this was a big issue within the faction-ridden party. Three months down the line, it continues to remain so.

Tackling opposition within

The new team has its hands full — quelling infighting, getting senior leaders on board and putting up a united face after a long spell of factionalism. Add to this the drawing up of a manifesto, constituting election-related committees and setting the ticket-distribution process in motion, and the party has a tall order going ahead.

That said, with other regional parties grappling with splits, exodus of leaders and failed alliances, the Congress seems to be the only credible match to the ruling BJP government in the state. Hoping to ride to victory on the Dalit-Jat combination represented by Selja and Hooda, respectively, the party expects to consolidate this vote bank to its advantage, while the BJP banks on its traditional vote bank of the trader community and contests on its non-Jat identity.

The Indian National Lok Dal is struggling to save its identity given the exodus of its top leaders since former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s clan split. Its splinter group, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), is also trying to find its feet even as reconciliatory efforts are on to bring the two together.

With both these regional parties that drew strength from the Jat community in complete disarray, the Congress wants to be an alternative to the Jats looking for options. Also, the party is working on the premise that the Jats will consolidate behind Hooda, seen as the tallest leader of the community since his 10 years in government. This is more so because the BJP is better known for its non-Jat identity, which it stoutly denies, claiming that the last five years of rule have changed all that for the better.

Managing the vote share

While the Congress explores the possibility of a tie-up with the Bahujan Samaj Party, Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja’s appointment as the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee chief is being seen as a Dalit vote-puller since she has been the party’s Dalit face for long. Believing the combination has the potential to be a game-changer for the Congress, the party is going into these Assembly elections with hope.

Further, its prospects got a fillip by the increase in vote percentage in the recently concluded parliamentary elections. Against a vote share of 22.99 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, it managed 28.42 per cent in the 2019 polls even though the party failed to win any seat. In the Assembly elections, however, the party’s fortunes have been dipping since 2005 when the Congress came back to power with 67 seats and a vote share of 42.46 per cent. This fell to 37.08 per cent and 40 seats in 2009 when former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s son and Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi floated his own party, He wrested six seats and a vote percentage of 7.40 per cent.

In 2014, the Congress’ vote share nearly halved to 20.58 per cent and the seats got reduced to 15, while Bishnoi contested separately to win two seats and got a vote share of 3.57 per cent. Halfway through the term of the present Vidhan Sabha, he merged his HJC into the Congress and is back in the party fold.

Though the graph of the Congress has been falling in the Assembly elections, the party is looking at the bright side and hoping the vote share jump in the parliamentary elections will multiply and bring it back in the saddle.

However, the ground reality, for now, is that its leaders and candidates are making individual efforts, relying on personal contacts to see them through and are not hoping for any help from the big names of the party to woo the crowds. It is for them a personal battle within the folds of their party where the charisma of the top leadership holds little sway.