As Congress claims it was analysing the "unexpected" results in Haryana Assembly elections, it was at the receiving end of the wrath of INDIA bloc allies, who slammed the grand old party for its arrogance and over-confidence.
The dramatic upset in Haryana which saw the BJP beat anti-incumbency to bag a third time came a huge blow to the Congress, which was on the path of resurgency after a good performance in the Lok Sabha elections. The party had pinned its hope on winning Haryana, which it considered a low-hanging fruit.
Rahul Gandhi, in his first response, said the party was analysing the "unexpected" results and will apprise the Election Commission about complaints received from various constituencies of the state. The party alleges that the BJP had delayed the publishing of results on the Election Commission's website. There were also allegations of tampering with voting machines. The BJP denies the allegations.
However, the Congress response did nothing to pacify the allies, including TMC, AAP, and Shiv Sena (UBT). While Uddhav Thackeray and the CPI sought the party to reexamine its strategy for the assembly elections, TMC wasn't soft on its response. It heaped criticism on Congress, stating its "arrogance, entitlement, and looking down on regional parties" was a recipe for disaster.
In a post on X, Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale attributed the Congress's attitude of snubbing regional parties in places where they were winning as the reason for the debacle. "This attitude leads to electoral losses- if we feel we're winning, we will not accommodate any regional party... But in states where we're down, regional parties must accommodate us," the TMC MP said.
Trinamool Congress, which is part of the INDIA bloc comprising opposition parties, had fought solo in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, while the Congress had allied with the CPI(M) and other Left parties.
The Aam Admi Party (AAP) too criticised the Congress for its "overconfidence". The seat-sharing agreement with AAP in Haryana had fallen through despite AAP's eagerness for an alliance. AAP leader Manish Sisodia said the Congress couldn't benefit from BJP's flaws due to its shortcomings in the election strategy.
Also read: Haryana Assembly Election 2024: What Congress's failure means for Bhupinder Singh Hooda
The CPI also wanted the Congress to do some serious introspection ahead of the Maharashtra elections, where it is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition. CPI general secretary D Raja said the Congress's decision not to go for seat sharing worked against it. "Congress party will have to do serious introspection. It has to do some self-critical assessment of its own strategy and tactics," he said.
Raja said the INDIA bloc parties should work with mutual trust in each other, and mutual accommodation in time of seat sharing, and that such an approach was not adopted in Haryana.
The Congress also suffered due to infightings within the party and its overconfidence, according to analysts. While the party failed to pacify infightings and rebels, Hooda dominated the proceedings, thereby alienating Kumari Selja, a Dalit leader. She was upset at Hooda denying tickets to her supporters and had opted to stay away from the campaign trail for several days.