Down & divided weeks ago, Cong pulls out a surprise comeback
RISE FROM THE ASHES Grand old party gives a frontal blow to ruling BJP’s lofty target of 75 seats
CHANDIGARH: Till a few weeks ago, the Congress in Haryana was down and divided. The party’s state unit was in despair not only due to its shocking defeat in all the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies earlier this year but also an ongoing feud between two of its top leaders.
Nobody was hopeful till then of the party’s good performance in the upcoming assembly elections. But when the poll results began trickling in on Thursday, the party emerged as the biggest surprise of the assembly polls. The gloom that had long engulfed its demoralised cadres began fading, bringing back confidence in the rank and file of the party.
By winning 31 seats — up from 15 in 2014— and halting the victory march of the overconfident Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at 40 seats, the party gave a frontal blow to the saffron outfit’s lofty target of ‘abki baar, 75 paar’ (this time, 75 seats).
And the architect of its comeback is none other than former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who singlehandedly campaigned and launched the counter-offensive against the BJP even as the central leadership had left the state unit on its own.
While the party lost at least seven seats with a thin margin, its as many sitting MLAs bit the dust. Interestingly, what happened to the BJP in 2019 happened with the Congress in 2009.
The grand old party, which won nine seats in the 2009 parliamentary polls, secured victory from only 40 segments in the assembly elections seven months later. Similar thing happened to the saffron party which despite having won all 10 seats in the May Lok Sabha elections lost significant ground in the October 21 assembly polls, with the Congress turning the tables just five months later.
Prof Ranbir Singh, a political analyst, explains this, “Voters in Haryana are an enigma. They often spring surprises.” The Congress’ vote share in the Lok Sabha elections increased by about 5% from 22.99 % in 2014 to 28% this time. Now, its vote share again hovered around 28.1%
Political observers say the verdict clearly points towards the dominant Jat community hitting back at the BJP by supporting the Congress. For example, in Deswali belt, considered a Hooda bastion,comprisingRohtak,Sonepat and Jhajjar districts, the party won from 11 of the 14 segments. Behind the Congress’ impressive show were at least four factors at play. The consolidation of Jat voters who backed the party was the game-changer, while Dera Sacha Sauda followers too hit voted against the ruling BJP.
While Jats’ grouse against the saffron party pertains to the February 2016 quota agitation in which over 34 youths were killed in police firing, over 40 Dera Sacha Sauda followers were shot dead during protests in August next year after the sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was convicted. In the urban belts, the main support base of the BJP, dominant among traders and businessmen, the voter turnout was dismal. In at least 15 urban seats where the BJP had won in 2014, the turnout dipped drastically.
“The business community, the traditional support base of the BJP, was unhappy. They didn’t come out to vote,” Prof Rajendra Sharma, head of the political science department in Maharishi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, said. Not just the traders, even the BJP cadre didn’t mobilise the voters. Nor did they were active during the electioneering. The party cadre was demoralised and disappointed because they didn’t get the kind of the support and patronage they were expecting from the government.