As Congress plays catch-up, BJP looks ahead, plans to find its footing in rural Haryana

“A specialised plan has been drafted for the villages where the party could not secure a lead even in one election. Organisational teams have been set up in such villages, and people’s feedback on the BJP performance is being taken. We will establish if the loss was due to the candidate, caste dynamics, lack of development in the area or some agitation that influenced voter sentiment. Each village may have a unique reason and we intend to study all factors carefully,” Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli told The Indian Express.

Other BJP leaders Express spoke to also said the party had set a target of 50% vote share in the 2029 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. The ruling party stepping up its efforts comes at a time when the Congress has managed to narrow the gap in vote share: from 12.6 percentage points in 2014 to 0.6 percentage point 10 years later.

In the Assembly elections held last year, the BJP registered its highest-ever tally in the state — 48 — with a 39.9% vote share, while the Congress won 37 seats with a 39.1% vote share. In 2019, the BJP fell short of a majority in the 90-member Assembly, winning 40 seats with a 36.49% vote share while the Congress won 31 seats with a 28.08% vote share.

In 2014, when the BJP formed the government in Haryana on its own for the first time, it won 47 seats with a 33.2% vote share while the Congress won 15 seats with a 20.5% vote share.

The Congress has been closing in on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls too, with the vote share difference shrinking from 29.7 percentage points in 2019 to just 2.44 percentage points last year. In last year’s polls, where the BJP and the Congress won five seats each, the BJP secured 46.11% of the votes while the Congress got 43.67%. Five years earlier, the BJP had swept all 10 seats in the state with a 58% vote share while the Congress drew a blank, securing 28.42% of the votes. In 2014, the BJP won seven seats with a 34.74% vote share while the Congress won just one, securing 22.92% of the votes.

Following its third consecutive term, the BJP continued its good show, winning nine of 10 seats during the mayoral polls in March. “This victory reinforced the party’s strongholds in urban areas and plans are now afoot to shift focus to improving our performance in rural areas,” a party leader said.

Congress comeback plans

The Congress, which has yet to elect a Leader of the Opposition since its Assembly poll defeat last October, has initiated a restructuring plan for its state unit to regain its foothold in the state.

As a part of the exercise, AICC Haryana in-charge B K Hariprasad and state Congress chief Udai Bhan on June 2 announced the appointment of 69 Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee observers and eight additional ones. The observers have been tasked with strengthening the party across the state.

In his first visit to the state since the Congress’s Assembly poll loss, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on June 4 held talks with party leaders to gather feedback on the restructuring efforts.

A source said Gandhi emphasised that “no recommendations, no affiliations (to any leader) will be taken into account while creating the organisational cadre”. “He also made it clear that any harm to the party due to factionalism will not be tolerated, and that the recently appointed observers would look for party workers who work in the interest of the party, have allegiance to the party’s ideologies and not because they are blue-eyed of any particular party leader,” the source added.

Party leaders said Gandhi had asked the observers to identify “hard-working party workers” who come from a humble background and are active in their respective districts.

For over a decade, factionalism has dominated the Haryana Congress at all levels and is seen to be a key factor in the party’s “surprise” loss in last year’s Assembly polls.