A beleaguered Haryana Congress is facing an uphill task to remain fighting fit for the Assembly polls scheduled for October this year. The graph of popularity of the ruling Congress is so low that it is not getting enough applicants for tickets for the 90 Assembly seats of the State. The ticket aspirants were asked to purchase the application forms and apply through proper channels to the party headquarters in Chandigarh.
The Congress had lost nine of the 10 seats in the lok Sabha polls and the lone winner was Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s son Deepinder from Rohtak.
So far, the Haryana Congress headquarters, where aspirants used to approach senior party leaders to get tickets hardly has much activity. Party sources said that around 2,000 application forms have been sold to date. The last date for purchasing the form is July 20. Party leaders were expecting that at least 5,000 forms would be sold but due to the poor response, there is disappointment.
To revive the dwindling fortunes of the Congress and lack of interest in the party, the state leadership on Wednesday called a meeting of all those who had either lost their assembly elections or had applied for party ticket but could not contest in 2009,
The meeting under AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmad and State Congress president Ashok Tanwar got feedback from these candidates on Wednesday to find out the grassroots realities and where to focus on in the run-up to polls.
After talking to around 50 such leaders, Tanwar admitted that in the lok Sabha polls, the defeat was due to over confidence and ‘groupism’ in the State Congress. On the results of the 2009 Assembly polls in which Congress had won 40 seats, Tanwar said on 22 Assembly seats, the Congress lost by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.
Congress leaders are also worried about the falling graph of the party in terms of seats since 2005 Assembly polls. The party won 67 seats in 2005 Assembly polls which got reduced to 40 in 2009. Even the vote percentage of Congress has decreased from 42.46 per cent in 2005 to 35.08 per cent in 2009 Assembly polls.
Factionalism too has severely affected the party ahead of the Assembly polls. Senior Congress leader and MP from Rajya Sabha, Chaudhary Birender Singh has been challenging the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for quite a while with the central leadership looking on. Party sources said when the polls are round the corner, attempt is to plug the loopholes and be battle ready.