Lack of booth network and team spirit: What let Cong down in Hry

Gurgaon: Congress was left ruing another missed opportunity as the Haryana assembly results were declared on Tuesday and BJP romped to a historic third straight term in office.
Congress had garnered around 28% of the vote share in 2019, which increased by around 11 percentage points this time. But that alone was clearly not enough to dislodge BJP, with Congress functionaries admitting theirs had mainly been a leader-based fight, focused around Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Rahul Gandhi, but it didn't have the cadre base to back it up.
In the decade since it has been out of govt in Haryana, Congress has had weak organisational machinery here.The party, hoping to ride the anti-incumbency sentiment, spoke about solving the city's civic problems but could not capitalise on frustration about gaps in municipal governance that led to a solid waste exigency being declared in Gurgaon by the state govt earlier this year.
BJP, on the other hand, was able to mobilise its voters with its booth-level cadre strength and strong involvement of the RSS. The party won 4-0, with Congress finishing third in the Gurgaon seat.
Congress's other problem was that it was a campaign shorn of big guns, with even Hooda, making just a few pit stops. Its leadership was overconfident that anti-incumbency would take BJP down, rather than crafting its own campaign to make inroads in a region BJP has politically dominated over the last decade. Even Congress state president Udai Bhan, a four-term MLA from Hodal seat in south Haryana, could not manage to win.
"When you talk about south Haryana, which is the Ahirwal belt, BJP has three big faces – Rao Inderjit, Rao Narbir and Sudha Yadav. So regardless of who the party candidate is, BJP booth-level workers are proactive because the booth structure is ready. Congress has only one such face (Capt Ajay Yadav) here but he could not ensure the win of his son Chiranjeev Rao this time. There was no kisan morcha, no mahila morcha or youth wing. This shock defeat of our party has exposed this gaping hole, which must be plugged urgently," said a senior Congress functionary.
Factionalism within the party, according to sources, is another big reason for the defeat. "For the Gurgaon seat, 32 aspirants from Congress had applied. Mohit Grover was selected but was left to campaign himself. The other 31 were hardly seen in his campaign. He was dependent on his family and friends for campaigning. Most candidates were left to fend for themselves, with no big party leaders coming to campaign for them," said another Congress functionary.
The Jat factor too did not help Congress as it played on the minds of non-Jat voters, analysts said. "Although it's still early to definitively say what led to the BJP's success and Congress's failure, it seems the traditional voting patterns in Haryana have resurfaced. In this election, 31 castes united and consolidated behind BJP as a counter to the Jat community. Congress was not prepared for this, relying on the belief that anti-incumbency sentiment against BJP would work in its favour. This confidence led them to prominently feature Hooda," said political analyst Satish Kumar Jha.
Pearl Chaudhary, Congress candidate from Pataudi, was candid in her assessment of the party's performance. "The organisation structure has been missing for some time and it could have definitely helped if it was there. However, there seems to have been some foul play as seats we lost such as Rewari, Bawal and Mahendergarh, which we were sure of winning. No amount of campaigning would help."