Divided Congress learns no lessons in Haryana, BJP repeats sweep in mayor polls

Reacting to the mayor results, former six-time MLA and Congress leader Sampat Singh said the party was losing precious time. “A formidable party organisation should be formed as early as possible. It is time for united efforts to boost the confidence of partymen across the state.”

The results are particularly embarrassing for the Congress as it had put up candidates on its symbol, departing from its traditional stand of not doing so in municipal polls in the state. This was done in the hope that it would consolidate its supporters, who were disheartened after the Assembly polls.

Many leaders were incidentally opposed to this for precisely the reason that the March 2 municipal polls were happening too close on the heels of the BJP’s sweep in the Assembly elections. “The Congress weaknesses at the local level now stand exposed. Had the decision not been taken, we could have had at least a fig leaf,” a Congress leader said.

Another Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, said the party’s seriousness about the civic polls could be gauged from the fact that many wards in Hisar did not even have an official candidate. “The state leadership did not present a united front despite the Assembly poll debacle,” the leader said.

Senior Congress leader Ajay Singh Yadav claimed the results in the municipal corporation polls would have been different had they taken place three years after the Assembly elections. “The ruling party gets an advantage if the civic polls are held immediately after the Assembly elections. Further, the State Election Commission did not pay heed to our demand to hold civic polls with ballot papers instead of EVMs,” he said, though also admitting that the results showed the lack of Congress organisation at the block-, district- and state-level in Haryana.

Ahead of the municipal polls, the cracks in the Congress had also played out in public. A list of party incharges for all 22 districts released by state unit chief Udai Bhan was opposed by AICC general secretary incharge Deepak Babaria, demanding that recommendations of all state leaders be considered. Subsequently in January, Babaria released a list of the party’s district incharges, co-convenors and committees for the north and south zones for the management of the civic polls.

Then, Congress Ambala MP Varun Choudhary objected to Babaria’s list, saying some people named in it were not even members of the party while some others had contested against the party in last year’s Assembly elections.

A section of the state leadership claims that the affairs of the party ran smoothly down to the block-level till 2014, when Phool Chand Mullana, seen as a loyalist of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was the state chief. They say things started to spiral after Mullana was replaced with former Lok Sabha MP Ashok Tanwar, with differences cropping up between the two camps.

Since then, the internal rifts within the Congress have not settled, even after the party replaced Tanwar with former Union minister Kumari Selja, who was seen to be in the anti-Hooda camp, or replaced her with Hooda loyalist Bhan.

After the Assembly loss, former Union minister Birender Singh, who returned to the Congress from the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, had attributed infighting as the biggest reason for the Congress’s defeat.

The BJP camp was jubilant Wednesday. Expressing gratitude to the people for the win, CM Nayab Singh Saini said the results were a seal of approval on the BJP government’s policies. “The triple-engine government has a bigger responsibility to undertake development works… Haryana and the country will develop under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.