The Congress party’s massive defeat in the Haryana local body elections is the last nail in the coffin of the party in State politics. Haryana was one of the strongholds of the Congress party in the pre-2014 phase. But after the resurgence of the BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi had annihilated the Congress party in many States including Haryana. Other important States include Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh etc. Now the Congress party is confined to some pockets and is now struggling to save these strongholds by the hands of the BJP. In the Haryana local body elections, the Congress party suffered a crushing defeat just like the local body elections of many other States like Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh. Haryana is only an addition to the list of such States.
In the local body elections held this month the Congress party completely bit the dust. This defeat is highly significant for the party as within a year the party performed better than its expectation in the 2024 Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections. Out of the election for a total of 10 mayor posts the BJP won 9 seats while the Congress party failed to even open its account. The BJP even Rohtak Municipal Corporation which is the stronghold of the former two-time Chief Minister and the senior Congress party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Such massive defeat of the Congress party is not only due to the BJP but also due to the family oriented policies of the Gandhi family. Both the Congress party and the family had high hopes from Haryana. The alliance of the Congress party and the Aam Aadmi Party had reduced the BJP to half the seats in Haryana in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. While the BJP had won all the 10 seats in Haryana in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in the 2024 elections, the BJP could win only 5 seats. The Congress party and the Gandhi family had high hopes from the Haryana Assembly elections too. After the Lok Sabha elections, Assembly elections were held in the States and UTs of Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Haryana, and the NCT of Delhi but the Gandhi family had only expectations from Haryana. In the Assembly elections the Congress party had considered itself so strong in Haryana that it did not even consider AAP suitable for alliance. Finally the BJP defeated the Congress party and formed the Government in Haryana with an increasing seat tally than in previous Assembly.
It’s ironic that for the Congress party, Haryana is becoming another form of Gujarat. Haryana, which used to be a strong pillar of the Congress party before 2014, is becoming weak due to the indecisiveness of the Gandhi family. Despite winning 37 seats in the 90-member Assembly in 2024 the Congress party has not yet been able to choose its Leader or say the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. The real reason for this is that the Gandhi family wants to sideline the strong leader of the State Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who has his own mass base. It’s the usual policy of the Gandhi family to sideline such leaders who have their own mass base even since the beginning. We cannot rule out the possibility that in coming days due to such behavior of the Gandhi family, Bhupinder Singh Hooda may also form his own party like Sharad Pawar, Mamta Banerjee and Jaganmohan Reddy.
The coming days are very tough for the Congress party as it will have to face multiple important local body elections. Local body elections are scheduled to be held this year in many States including Maharashtra, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Durgapur and Howrah Municipal Corporations of West Bengal, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in Congress Party-ruled Telangana, Itanagar Municipal Corporation of Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast states Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, Rajasthan. The toughest election for the Congress party will be the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in Telangana and local body elections in Karnataka. In these two States the Congress party is in power, so everyone’s eyes are on the performance of the Congress party in these States. Everything is at stake for the Congress party in the Kerala Assembly elections scheduled to be held next year. If the Congress party does not perform well in the elections of local bodies in Kerala, then the BJP can replace the Congress party in the upcoming Assembly elections in 2026 in Kerala as the main opponent of the Left Democratic Front (LDF). The BJP has replaced the Congress party as the main challenger to Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and even ruled Tripura consecutively for a second term by replacing the Congress party. The BJP will try to defeat the Congress party in the local body elections in Kerala in 2025 and will come into the main electoral battle in the State against the LDF in the next Assembly elections.
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