This was seen as a major test for Congress satrap and leader of opposition in Haryana Bhupinder Hooda to establish complete control over the state unit. But the June 10 results for Haryana’s two Rajya Sabha seats not only raised questions about his ability to keep the herd together, but also widened the cracks in the party.
Despite having 31 MLAs, and indulging in resort politics before polling day, the Congress failed to win a Rajya Sabha seat for Ajay Maken, leaving the party leadership in the red. While the result should have been a 1-1 scorecard for the BJP and Congress, as were the numbers in the latter, rifts within the state unit ensured that the second seat went to Karthikeya Sharma, an independent candidate backed by the BJP.
What was more embarrassing for the party was that Kuldeep Bishnoi, the party’s disgruntled MLA from Adampur, not only cross-voted, but also invalidated another vote of the Congress MLA, taking the party’s tally to 29 and Sharma to scrap. Permission granted.
Bishnoi’s counterattack after being side-lined during the recent state unit reorganization was an already foregone conclusion, but the invalidation of another vote led to conspiracy theories within the party and a senior Congress leader. The rumblings at the leader’s “deliberate” cast. an invalid vote.
The drama unfolding on voting day was preceded by open threats and heartbreak for a section of leaders, when the Congress leadership revamped the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) on April 27, appointing Hooda’s aide Uday Bhan as the new state unit. appointed as the Chairman. In this way, Hooda is being given a free hand.
While Hooda was given full control over the state unit, Vikas left Bishnoi and his supporters. The Adampur MLA refused to reveal his cards till the last minute, barring a few tweets of dismay, but eventually went against the party’s candidate for the Rajya Sabha election.
The party high command decided to field another senior Haryana Congress leader, Randeep Surjewala, Hooda’s bitter rival, from Rajasthan, nominating Ajay Maken, to balance caste equations and avoid cross-voting in elections. was. , a known loyalist of the Gandhi family from Haryana.
Hooda was given the responsibility of ensuring Maken’s victory. For the senior Hooda and his son Dipendra, ensuring Maken’s victory became a key element in putting his stamp of authority on the state unit. But Kuldeep Bishnoi seems to have marked his strategy quite well.
An angry Bishnoi got a clear indication that the Gandhi family was not ready to bow down to pressure from his supporters. So when he did not get any appointment with party leader Rahul Gandhi, the son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal decided to spoil the party for Hooda.
And while the Congress struggled to keep its flock together, the BJP seemed to have finalized its Operation Haryana well enough. Karthikeya Sharma was initially supported by the JJP, but later he got the support of the BJP government led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, six independent MLAs and one MLA each from INLD and Haryana Lokhit Party.
Realizing that Sharma’s entry tightened the competition and put the competition at stake, Hooda asked all 31 party MLAs to reach Delhi and board a chartered flight to a five-star resort in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh. . Only 29 MLAs joined the herd and went to the resort in Raipur. Bishnoi and Kiran Choudhary, another Hooda opponent, did not join them.
Hooda claimed that he tried his best to keep the bunch together and offered to woo some MLAs allegedly by the BJP. But the results apparently shook the state unit with questions raised on Hooda’s leadership.
However, Haryana Congress President Uday Bhan has denied any wrongdoing in the armor. “Other than one MLA, all were on the board. We are still investigating how one vote became invalid. But the state unit is not fragmented. We will continue to fight the BJP unitedly in any election battle,” Bhan told News18.com.
Despite his claim, it is clear that the results have hurt the party’s ‘all is well’ claim. The developments will also have an impact on whether Hooda has the ability to lead the electoral battle in the next two years’ assembly elections.
Also with Bishnoi being suspended, it will be interesting to see which way he goes as he has a lot of clout in Haryana politics. For now, the challenge for the Haryana Congress seems easy.
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