Six months after suffering a shock defeat at the hands of the incumbent BJP in the Haryana Assembly elections, the Congress has continued to be in dire straits in the state. Apart from being beset with factionalism and infighting, the state Congress has continued to struggle in the absence of any organisational structure at the block and district levels. The newly-appointed All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Haryana, B K Hariprasad, is facing an uphill task as the central party leadership looks to rebuild its organisation in the state. Hariprasad has begun meeting the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) leaders, current and former party MLAs as well as district party leaders as part of an exercise to work out a roadmap for putting the organisational structure in place. For more than 15 years, the Congress leadership has not constituted the District Congress Committees (DCCs) and Block Congress Committees (BCCs) or appointed their presidents in Haryana. The voices from within the state Congress against the leadership of ex-chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and PCC president Udai Bhan, a known Hooda loyalist, seem to be getting louder as several leaders have started seeking a change in the state party leadership. A state Congress leader Vipin Sangwan met Hariprasad in Delhi to demand Bhan's resignation. “I met Hariprasad ji and told him that Udai Bhan has lost his credibility. He should have taken responsibility for the party's loss in October 2024 Assembly polls and resigned. I have put forth my candidature for the post of PCC president so that committed Congress workers can give a fresh lease of life to the party. Congress is nobody's inheritance. There has to be a hire-and-fire policy. Action should be taken against anyone who does not work in the interest of the party,” Sangwan said. Former Congress MLA Shamsher Singh Gogi also targeted Hooda and Bhan. “Hariprasad ji is very serious on the issue of creating organisational structure. I met him and told him that those who rebelled against the party after they were denied tickets, those who are occupying higher posts but do not work in party's interests, should be kept out of the party organisation. We have people who become chief minister, ministers, but yet their commitment is only to power and not to the party,” Gogi told The Indian Express. “I even met Rahul Gandhi ji, and told him that till the party continues to depend on the MLAs, it cannot get us the results. There has to be a strong organisational structure at ground level, to which he (Rahul) agreed and assured me that it will be done soon. Not only me, but several Congress workers are now hoping that within this month the new Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, PCC chief and other leaders at district and block levels would be appointed,” Gogi said. On his part, Hooda also told The Indian Express, “There is an extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Gujarat on April 8 followed by the AICC session the next day. I shall also be there in that CWC meeting. Things are moving towards the creation of an organisational cadre in Haryana, and it will be done after this two-day party session.” Significantly, multiple predecessors of Hariprasad also made attempts to bring unity in the state Congress and set up a statewide organisational structure, but to no avail. Consequently, the party's fortunes have continued to slide for more than a decade. In the 2005 state Assembly polls, the Congress got an absolute majority, getting 67 seats out of 90, with Hooda becoming the CM. In the 2009 polls, the party could not get a majority (40/90 seats) but managed to form the government with Hooda continuing as the CM for the second term. Since 2014, the party has been in the Opposition, getting 15 seats in 2014, 31 seats in 2019 and 37 seats in 2024. Since 2014, the Haryana Congress has seen several AICC in-charges, including five in the last six years. In January 2019, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was then with the Congress, replaced Kamal Nath as the AICC in-charge of Haryana. In September 2020, Azad was replaced by Vivek Bansal, who was removed after senior party leader Ajay Maken could not make it to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana despite the party having adequate number of MLAs. Shaktisinh Gohil replaced Bansal in December 2022, and within six months, he was replaced by Deepak Babaria. And in February this year, Hariprasad was appointed the new state in-charge. In the wake of the Congress's debacle in last October polls, the party leadership has not picked the CLP leader – who would assume the role of the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly – mainly due to tussle between the party factions led by Hooda and Sirsa MP Kumari Selja. Although Hooda appears to have the support of a slew of MLAs, the high command has shied away from naming him the CLP leader so far.
