Decoding Haryana’s Politics : The Quandary over Chief Minister’s post in Haryana Congress

With the curtains coming down on the 2024 general elections, the country is back to life but Haryana is gearing up for the next state assembly elections scheduled for October 2024. With the rising mercury, all the parties are in preparation mode to reach the hot seat in Chandigarh. Thrilled, after the gain of 5 seats in the 2024 Lok sabha election results, the Congress party is hoping to repeat the same performance in assembly elections but giving a new jolt to the hopes, senior leader of Congress, Kiran Chaudhary along with her daughter and ex-MP Shruti Chaudhary shifted their loyalties to the BJP in Haryana.

Kiran Chaudhary along with her “SRK’’ cohort, was attacking Hooda and expecting a change of guard in the Congress party in Haryana but Hooda keeping his grip tight on the party shattered her hopes. As Kiran resigned she blamed former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda for making the state congress unit, his “personal fiefdom”.  Notably, this internal feud started in the Congress party in Haryana after the shocking debacle in the 2014 assembly election results. Congress ended up winning just 15 seats, even less than INLD which won 19, and much behind BJP which won 47 seats.

After this debacle, voices were raised against Hooda’s leadership in the party. Young leaders like Ashok Tanwar who started his career in the congress-supported student organization, NSUI, and was once considered the insider of Rahul Gandhi's camp, left the congress party over the feud with Hooda.  Ashok Tanwar and the young Turks of the Congress party wanted organizational changes in the party with Tanwar as the new face of the party in the state but Hooda wasn’t ready to “let the power go” outside Rohtak. In the end, Tanwar left the party and Hooda maintained his tight grip over Congress in Haryana.

In 2019, when Congress, once again failed to form government in the state, leaders like Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kiran Chaudhary, and Kumari Selja took charge and attacked Hooda for his ambitions of making his son Deependra Hooda Chief Minister of Haryana.  In the next 5 years, the quarrel over the CM post kept recurring, and those who considered themselves old loyalists of Congress and close to the Gandhi family staked a claim over the Chief minister’s post in Haryana.

Those who opposed Hooda in these 5 years, were expecting a change of guard before the 2024 Lok Sabha election results. Old congress leader and bitter critic of Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Krishnamurti Hooda who hailed from Rohtak left the Congress party just before the Lok sabha elections when the high command once again decided to go the “Hooda” way in Haryana. He also attacked Hooda over making the Congress party his family’s party. 

The ticket distribution for the 2024 Lok sabha elections also became a big issue in the power circles of the party but leaving all behind Hooda once again got the Lion’s share in ticket distribution. Hooda distributed tickets according to his wishes, and his opponents attacked him for placing inexperienced candidates like Divyanshu Bhudiraja from Karnal's seat against Manohar Lal Khattar. Hooda playing his move, made sure that the high command remembered,  the 2022 Rajya Sabha loss of Ajay Maken in which Kiran Chaudhary allegedly batted from BJP’s side. Shruti Chaudhary’s big defeat in 2019 and her mother’s tussle with Hooda, worked in favor of the old Hooda loyalist, Rao Dan Singh who finally contested from the Bhiwani-Mahendargarh seat replacing the Bansilal family.

The quandary over the CM post in the Congress party continues and Kumari Shelja recently mincing no words, openly wished for the CM post. Nonetheless, with assembly elections just a few months away, it will be interesting to see in which direction this tussle will lead the Congress party in Haryana and how the internal feud will impact its poll performance