Knives out for Congress in I.N.D.I.A. bloc, day after Haryana poll debacle

New Delhi: Congress on Wednesday was at the receiving end of I.N.D.I.A partners for its Haryana debacle, as they questioned its 'one-upmanship' while accusing it of using their goodwill to wriggle out of trouble but ignoring them while on a strong wicket.

In what is seen as a direct fallout of the poll outcome, Samajwadi Party released a list of six candidates for Assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh in the midst of negotiations with the Congress, which wants five seats. 

Similarly, AAP took on an “over confident” Congress, saying it is capable of fighting Delhi polls “alone”.  It had demanded ten seats in Haryana but an alliance did not happen as the Congress was willing to give only seven, an offer unacceptable to the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.

Senior Opposition leaders like Omar Abdullah and Sanjay Raut said the Congress should introspect on what went wrong. The CPI(M), which fought one each seat in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir in alliance, asked the Congress to introspect about “other factors” beyond “micro-caste mobilisation and insidious communal propaganda” for the electoral rout.

Opposition sources claimed that the grand old party has given the BJP a “life jacket” they were looking for after the Lok Sabha results and the Congress should not “mistreat” allies in poll-bound states of Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

Attacking the Congress for not taking along alliance partners like AAP and SP in Haryana, sources in the I.N.D.I.A bloc alleged that the Congress is back to its “arrogant self” after doubling their tally in the Lok Sabha with the help of alliance partners.

There is a feeling among allies that the Congress appears magnanimous only when it is weak as one saw after the setback in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Assembly elections late last year. In these states, the Congress had refused to entertain allies.

Some among the allies also see the Congress' Lok Sabha performance as an aberration and it continues to falter in a straight fight against the BJP. 

Raut told reporters in Mumbai that the I.N.D.I.A alliance could not be formed in Haryana because the Congress felt that they would win on their own strength and do not need any other partner in power. “Congress leader (Bhupinder) Hooda-ji felt that he would win. It has to be accepted that BJP has won a lost battle, which the Congress was actually winning. No one in the country was saying that BJP is coming but BJP has come,” he said. 

His comments came against the backdrop of the Congress flexing its muscles in Maharashtra after it emerged as the topper in Lok Sabha results in the state.

Abdullah said, “the Congress will have to go deep into it and find the reasons for its defeat. My job is to run the NC and help the alliance here, which I will.”

Though it did not directly attack the Congress, the CPI(M) said that the “resounding success in Jammu and Kashmir and the unexpected setback” in Haryana provide valuable lessons for secular forces in the struggle against BJP in the days to come.

“In Haryana, the BJP managed to secure a majority of seats in a close fight with the Congress, but with a narrow margin of 0.6% vote share over Congress. Its success is marked by micro-caste mobilisation and insidious communal propaganda. The Congress will have to introspect as to the other factors responsible for this verdict,” it added.

Haryana Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here

J&K Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here

Assembly Elections 2024 | In the first assembly polls since the Lok Sabha elections, Narendra Modi and the BJP defeated a rejuvenated and vindicated Opposition in the Haryana assembly polls. Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir voted after almost a decade, giving a decisive mandate to the National Conference-Congress alliance. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

Subscribe and follow DH on Whatsapp, X, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram to never miss out on anything.