Haryana election analysis: Why former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda got his poll math all wrong

CHANDIGARH: From being regarded as the “man of the moment” in the wake of Congress's strong comeback in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls to being blamed by his detractors in the party for missing victory in the 2024 Haryana assembly polls by a whisker, the situation has changed fast for former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
With a track record of emerging stronger after any challenge, it remains to be seen how he handles the latest political bouncers.Now, he will have to explain why he fell short of the numbers needed to form a govt when he had been given a free hand in the selection of candidates.
In 2019 when Congress had fallen just 15 seats short of majority, Hooda's supporters had claimed that he would have ensured the party’s return to power if he had been given full control over ticket distribution.
The results of the latest assembly polls have given the party’s central leadership a compelling reason to reassess and re-strategise its plans.
The exit of senior leaders like Kiran Chaudhary and Kuldeep Bishnoi from the party in the recent past after accusing Hooda of monopolizing the party affairs, has now become a point of renewed criticism against him.
In 2005, Congress top brass had picked up Hooda as the party’s new face in state politics by dislodging the overambitious Bhajan Lal. Hooda, then aged 57, had become the star of Haryana politics in 1991 after defeating former deputy prime minister and “Tau” of Indian politics, Devi Lal, from the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat.
By choosing Hooda, a Jat leader, the Congress high command had sent out a clear message that it wanted to give the people of the state a strong alternative to the Chautala family, which had a stronghold in the rural belt and was leading INLD---the most influential regional party in Haryana.
However, within a few months of taking over the reins of the state, Hooda went on to become a mass leader by strategically demolishing his opponents in the party as well as the main opposition party, INLD. He completely sidelined the Bhajan Lal family and their politics and even forced the former Congress stalwart to form his own outfit led by his son Kuldeep Bishnoi. He staged another coup after the 2009 assembly polls by managing to convince five of Bishnoi’s MLAs to defect to the Congress.
While caste configurations have dominated state politics, Hooda enjoyed popularity among all communities until BJP came into power in 2014.