How Congress infighting and squabbles spelled doom for party in Haryana

New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS) The cheerful and upbeat atmosphere in Congress, in the run-up to the Haryana Assembly elections, turned into a nightmare on Tuesday as the election results gave a clear mandate and absolute majority to the BJP, despite the latter facing a three-time antiincumbency. For Congress, it comes as a shock defeat and for BJP a ‘surprising’ victory. The biggest talking point now is how Congress lost the plot and gave away its much-anticipated victory to the BJP. Exit polls as well as political experts also concurred with a strong Congress wave in the state. Bickering, infighting and internal squabbles over gaining supremacy in the party are being seen as the key reasons behind Congress's below-par performance. As different factions under Bhupinder Hooda and Kumari Selja cropped up within the state unit, it did no good to the party and only weakened its clout.Even before the Assembly elections, the Haryana Congress was split wide open with several factions emerging within the state unit. Internal squabbling had begun, with party veterans including Bhupinder Hooda, Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala all angling for the Chief Minister post and they didn’t shy away from making their ambition public. Attempts by the party high command to quell the discontent and discord within went in vain.

The result of this was that the BJP despite facing strong antiincumbency, farmers’ wrath and wrestlers’ protests returned to power for a record third time. Congress’ dreams and hopes of making a comeback remain shattered now. Importantly, there is no external force to blame for this. Despite being the 'favourites' to win Haryana, the party has been kicked out of the electoral race. The factional feud, led by Hooda and Selja and their collective rejection of Rahul’s idea is seen as another reason for shock electoral loss. Their Internal quarrels and squabbles played out in the open as both Hooda and Selja pitched for their candidates during ticket distribution.