Almost a month after polling took place in the State, senior Congress leaders of Haryana now admitted that ‘Modi wave’ has adversely affected their chances in the lok Sabha elections for the 10 seats in the State.
State Power Minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav, after attending a review meeting of Power Utilities with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here on Thursday, said, “Yes, Modi wave was there in the elections. It would affect the Congress”.
Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Chaudhary Birender Singh, while talking to The Pioneer also admitted that “This time election was quite tough for the Congress.” He, however, did not refer to the Modi wave in the State.
Though there is a week left for the results of ten Parliamentary constituencies in Haryana, yet the morale of both junior and senior level Congress leaders seems to be going down. The workers do not give more than four seats to the party.
They are privately admitting that anti-incumbency and Modi wave has dented the prospects of the Congress.
Yadav added that, “Due to this (Modi) effect, ruling Congress would be able to get only four to five out of 10 lok Sabha seats in Haryana”.
Referring to Gurgaon constituency, where he had tried for Congress ticket for his son Chiranjeev Rao, former State Youth Congress president, he said, ‘Modi’ effect may give
benefit to BJP candidate Rao Inderjit Singh, who had left congress before elections citing non-development in his constituency.
Birender Singh, said Haryana was affected by the countrywide voting trend. “Haryana is part of the country and near Delhi, it gets directly affected but the situation at the national level is somewhat good,” said Singh.
Singh, a bete noire of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in State politics, also admitted that their party was not united during these elections and cautioned, “If we don’t stand united, we cannot get good results even in the assembly elections”.
However, the State Congress does not want to admit the reality. Hoshiari lal Sharma, spokesperson of the State Congress from Sirsa, said “All is well and we will win a majority of the seats”.
According to sources, there are numbers of factors by which BJP would show its good results here in Haryana.
“It is not only due to anti-incumbency of State ruling Congress, but also due to direct or indirect support of disgruntled Congress leaders who had left the party during elections including sitting MP from Gurgaon Rao Inderjit Singh, former Union Minister and sitting MlA Vinod Sharma, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Dharambir Singh and former MP Sushil Indora,” said sources.
Moreover, an open opposition by some of the Congress leaders sitting in anti-Hooda camp also supported the BJP candidates, besides of course ‘Modi wave’.
Congress leaders in the State say if Haryana Congress doesn’t initiate damage control exercises on time, there would be further erosion in its support base which could severely damage its prospects in the assembly polls.