Saffron surge sweeps away Cong’s tried and tested stalwarts

After ruling the state for two consecutive terms from 2004 till 2014, Congress was almost wiped out from Lok Sabha when BJP came with a thumping majority and won nine out of 10 lok Sabha seats. The party could not revive after that, despite several attempts in multiple contests.

On Thursday, Congress faced its one of the worst performances ever. Congress trusted its top guns,  beginning with former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and pushing him to lead from the front.

Expectations were high from Hooda who had during early days of his political career defeated former deputy prime minister Devi Lal from Rohtak constituency. He was hand picked by the Congress high command in 2005 and named as chief minister when the party won 67 out of 90 assembly seats that year in Haryana. He contested the Lok Sabha polls this time after a gap of 14 years.

Hooda, the sitting MLA from Garhi Sampla-Kiloi, represented Rohtak in the 2005 polls, but this time he entered the fray from Sonipat as Rohtak was represented by his son Deepender.

Apart from him, Congress placed its bet on its best on the remaining nine seats.

A four-time MP and former union minister Kumari Selja was fielded from Ambala, a six-time MLA Capt Ajay Singh Yadav from Gurgaon, party state president and one-time MP Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa, former minister Nirmal Singh from Kurukshetra, former Vidhan Sabha Speaker and two-time MLA Kuldeep Sharma from Karnal; former chief minister Bansi Lal’s granddaughter and one time MP Shruti Choudhry from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, three-time MP Deepender Hooda from Rohtak, former chief minister Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi from Hisar, and BJP rebel and a former MP Avtar Bhadana from Faridabad.

All of them lost, most of them badly. Both AICC president Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi held multiple campaigns, road shows and public meetings covering length and breadth of Haryana. Star campaigners from other states, including Punjab minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu campaigned, but failed to convert the huge gatherings into votes.

After poor show in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Congress looked to make a comeback in the Assembly polls held later that year. However, it failed again. From 40 seats in the 90-member House, Congress was reduced to a bare 15 and slipped to third position. Two-time CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda could not even make it to the post of Leader of Opposition. Instead, Indian National Lok Dal, INLD, became the prime opposition party in Haryana Vidhan Sabha with 19 MLAs.

The party prospects nosedived in February 2016 when Jat reservation agitation marred Haryana, leaving 30 people dead. BJP government went all out and holding Hooda and his close aides responsible for orchestrating violence and arson across the state. Hooda received another blow when his political advisor Prof Virender was arrested on charges of sedition and conspiracy for instigating violence during Jat reservation agitation.

From there on, Hooda faced multiple corruption cases and currently has six FIRs lodged against him. In fact, among the candidates who contested 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Hooda is the only one who has such a high number of criminal cases pending against him.

Lack of coordination among Congress’ senior leaders cost them dear in mayoral contest held in December, 2018 followed by another humiliating defeat in Jind bypoll held in January, this year. While Congress could not do much in mayoral polls as BJP swept it, the party pitted its one of the strongest candidate Randeep Surjewala in Jind bypoll, but he too failed and finished a distant third.

The party had also faced rout in 1977, but it came back strongly in 1984, sweeping all the ten seats.

However, in 1989, Congress’ fortunes again fluctuated and it won only four seats, with Bhajan Lal (Faridabad) and Bansi Lal (Bhiwani) among the winning candidates for the party.

In 1991, Congress won nine seats, but again in subsequent elections in 1996, its tally dropped to two, though Bhupinder Hooda (Rohtak) and Kumari Selja (Sirsa) were the only two who could win.

In 1998 too, the party could win only three seats and none in 1999. It won nine seats in 2004 when the UPA came to power at the Centre.  In 2004, BJP’s Kishan Singh Sangwan was the only non-Congress candidate to win (from Sonipat). The Congress repeated its 2004 performance in 2009 by winning nine seats, but in 2014 again, it performed poorly. Deepender Hooda was the only party candidate to win then.