Two days after a humiliating defeat in the Haryana Assembly elections, the Congress leadership, led by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, held a review meeting on Thursday to assess the reasons behind the loss. The meeting included senior leaders such as former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, and Ajay Maken. AICC state in-charge Deepak Babaria joined the meeting virtually.
Notably, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who led the party's campaign and ticket distribution, was not invited to the meeting. Senior leaders Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala were also absent. Analysts suggest that factionalism between the Hooda camp and the Selja-Surjewala faction contributed to the Congress' defeat.
Infighting, over-reliance on sitting MLAs, and issues with rebel candidates were seen as key factors in the party's failure to reclaim power after a decade. Despite strong anti-incumbency against the ruling BJP, which had been in power for 10 years, Congress managed only 37 seats in the 90-member assembly, while the BJP secured 48, defying exit polls that had predicted a comfortable win for Congress.
BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya took a jab at Congress, pointing out the exclusion of Dalit leader Kumari Selja and Surjewala from the meeting. He in a tweet said, "At the end of it all, they will, in all probability, blame the EVMs, ECI’s slow website, sun, moon blah blah, but not themselves."
Ajay Maken, speaking after the meeting, acknowledged the party’s disappointment with the results. "As the exit polls and opinion polls showed, the results were unexpected. There was a lot of difference between exit polls and actual results. We discussed what could be the reasons for that. We will take appropriate steps going forward," Maken said.
When asked if internal divisions contributed to the loss, Maken admitted there were multiple factors. "There are various reasons, from the Election Commission to internal differences. We discussed all that and will continue to do so in future because such a big upset...we cannot discuss everything in one or one-and-a-half hour," he added.
The meeting comes a day after the Congress demanded a thorough probe into "discrepancies" found in some Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the counting of votes and demanded that such EVMs should be sealed and secured pending the inquiry.
A delegation of top Congress leaders comprising former chief ministers Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ashok Gehlot and AICC leaders K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken and Pawan Khera, besides Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan, met with top Election Commission officials on Wednesday. The delegation handed over a memorandum to the officials along with specific complaints from various constituencies in Haryana.
The Congress leaders alleged that there are at least 20 such complaints, including seven in writing from as many assembly constituencies, with many referring to EVMs functioning at 99 per cent battery capacity whereas the average EVMs were found to be operating at 60 to 70 per cent battery capacity during the counting.