The results of the Haryana Assembly elections where the Congress party performed reasonably well but only managed to finish a close second behind BJP not only gives a lesson to senior leaders of Congress party but also gives a food of thought for the Uttarakhand Congress.
There are many similarities between political scenario in Haryana prior to the assembly elections and that prevailing at present in Uttarakhand. Like in Haryana, where the BJP was on the driver’s seat, riding on the crest of Modi wave, a virtual unknown political entity, Manohar Lal Khattar was made Chief Minister, a BJP Government is in power in Uttarakhand.
In Haryana, the state unit of the Congress party was sharply divided in the factions led by senior leader and former chief minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda, former Union Cabinet Minister Kumari Selja and PCC President Ashok Tanwar. A more or less similar situation prevails in Uttarakhand where the state congress is segmented into factions led by All India Congress Committee (AICC) and former chief minister Harish Rawat, combined group of PCC president Pritam Singh and leader of opposition in State Assembly, Indira Hridayesh and former PCC president, Kishore Upadhyaya.
The results of Haryana Assembly where Congress was able to win in 31 seats out of 90 but was not in a position to form Government as BJP emerged as the single largest party with 40 seats shows how the factionalism thwarted the prospects of party. Like in Haryana where Bhupendra Singh Hooda was the only mass leader in the Congress party and who singlehandedly doubled the strength of Congress in Assembly, Uttarakhand Congress has a mass leader in form of Harish Rawat. Just like Hooda, Harish Rawat holds considerable clout and has political acumen which others leaders lack.
Both the leaders have also been on the radar of Central agencies for different cases of alleged crime.
The Congress party is now ruing the fact that it delayed in handing over the reins of the party in Haryana to Hooda- It in fact didn’t projected Hooda as Chief Ministerial candidate which proved costly to the party- and when it did (by appointing him as head of campaign committee), it resulted in revolt of PCC president Ashok Tanwar.
Political analyst and senior journalist, Suren Rawat explains that things bear marked similarity between Haryana and Uttarakhand.
He said that like in Haryana the BJP had swept to victory in all seats in the parliamentary elections held in May in Uttarakhand and both states have considerable population of ex servicemen.
He added that idea of nationalism put forward by BJP and use Balakot air strikes in its election campaign have made a deep impact over the electorate of Haryana and Uttarakhand in parliamentary elections. “The Uttarakhand Congress should undertake an in- depth analysis of Haryana elections and take appropriate lessons.
The Congress should not repeat the mistakes which it committed in Haryana in Uttarakhand,’’ he said.