With the Congress ending with a defeat in the Haryana Assembly elections after confident proclamations of a big victory, its general secretary in-charge of the state Deepak Babaria has offered to resign. Announcing his resignation Monday, Babaria said his health too was a factor in his resignation offer. "Last week, after the results, I offered to resign. I offered to the high command that you can replace me. My health is not well and also it is my moral responsibility in the wake of the results," Babaria told PTI. He added: “After the Lok Sabha polls also, I had offered to resign as in-charge of Delhi, but no decision has been taken on that. Similarly, no decision has been taken (for Haryana), but it was my responsibility to offer (to resign).” Since the results in Haryana, the Congress has seen bitter infighting, with leaders going public with their criticism of how the campaign was run. Questions were asked of the party high command for letting the infighting impact the election results and over the “sidelining” of Kumar Selja, particularly as the distinct pro-Jat tilt of the Congress narrative is believed to have been the prime reason for its defeat. Babaria incidentally had gone missing from the scene towards a crucial juncture in the run-up to the polls, when the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party were in talks to reach a consensus on an alliance. The Congress list was kept pending till the very last minute before the talks finally fell apart, with the Congress denying the AAP the seats it was seeking. In the wake of the results, the failure to accommodate not just the AAP but also INDIA ally Samajwadi Party has come under a cloud, with Congress heavyweight Bhupinder Singh Hooda accused of stonewalling any concession. Babaria also found himself in a spot during the run-up to the polls when he said that party MPs would not be contesting the Haryana Assembly elections. This was immediately seen as a signal to Hooda rivals Selja, the Sirsa MP, and Randeep Surjewala, a Rajya Sabha MP. A day later, Babaria backtracked, saying that “anyone who has the support of the MLAs and blessings of the party high command can be in contention for the chief minister’s post”. Last week, when the Congress high command held a meeting to take stock of the Haryana results, with party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, AICC observers for Haryana elections Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken, and AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal attending, Babaria joined in but virtually. In fact, since he took over as in-charge of Haryana in June last year, Babaria has found himself caught in the tension between Hooda and the rest. At the very first meeting chaired by him, there was a war of words between the two sides, with Selja exiting mid-way, though she claimed it was due to a pre-scheduled meeting. Before this, Babaria had an unremarkable stint in Madhya Pradesh, when he was the party in-charge of the state when its government led by Kamal Nath fell in March 2020. Many party leaders complained that Babaria did not have the political chops needed to hold off the BJP as it toppled the Congress government after weaning away 22 MLAs, plus Jyotiraditya Scindia. Instead, Babaria was in and out of Bhopal at that time, and towards the end had self-isolated himself in Ahmedabad, his home town, complaining of fever, cough and sore throat. What has sustained Babaria is his perceived proximity to Rahul Gandhi, who brought him out of Gujarat and onto the national stage in May 2011. Gandhi was at the time the Congress general secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and NSUI. Before that, Babaria had served as a founding general secretary of the NSUI in Gujarat in the 1970s, and with the public grievance committee of the Gujarat Youth Congress from 1978 to 1982.
