New Delhi: The Congress party has instructed its Haryana leaders to maintain unity and actively engage with the party workers across the state in preparation for the upcoming assembly elections. These elections, scheduled for November, will elect the representatives for the 90-member Haryana legislative assembly. The directive aims to strengthen the party's position and leverage the current political climate to its advantage.
The Congress, which has been out of power in the state over the past decade, has sensed it can regain power, but needs to curb infighting and mobilise the ground force. Accordingly, a message has been delivered to the state leaders, said party insiders.
“The Lok Sabha polls results have been a booster for us. We are certain to regain power in the state, but we must fight as a team,” AICC in-charge of Haryana Dipak Babaria told ETV Bharat.
Before the Lok Sabha polls, Babaria had urged all senior leaders BS Hooda, Randeep Surjewala, Kumari Selja and Kiran Chaudhary to ensure maximum voting in their areas. This he said would be factored in during ticket distribution for the assembly polls.
The Congress strategists are upbeat over the fact that the grand old party gained a significant vote share while the ruling BJP lost vote share in all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.
The Congress had lost all 10 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, but contested nine in 2024 as part of an alliance with AAP, which fielded its nominee on the Kurukshetra seat. Out of the nine, the Congress won five seats while the AAP lost.
According to party managers, the maximum vote share gain by the Congress was in Hisar at 33 per cent, followed by Sirsa at 24 per cent, Bhiwani at 21 per cent, Faridabad at 20 per cent, Ambala, Kurukshetra and Karnal at 18 per cent, Rohtak at 16 per cent and Gurgaon and Sonipat 11 per cent.
According to party managers, the BJP lost vote share by 11 per cent in Ambala, 13 per cent in Bhiwani, 15 per cent in Faridabad, 10 per cent in Gurgaon, eight per cent in Hisar, 15 per cent in Karnal, 11 per cent in Kurukshetra, 12 per cent in Rohtak, 18 per cent Sirsa and 5 per cent in Sonipat.
According to party managers, the Congress started organising workers’ conclaves from Kurukshetra on Sunday and would cover all the districts in the state till July 14.
“During the Lok Sabha polls, INDIA bloc vote share was the maximum in Haryana at 47.6 per cent. Tamil Nadu was next to us. We are now going to all the assembly seats to mobilise our workers, who will go to every household over the coming days. The people of all the 36 communities have made up their mind to bring about a change in the assembly polls,” CLP leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda told ETV Bharat.
“Kurukshetra symbolises the place of righteousness and justice. Our victory march has started from there. Today we thanked and motivated workers in Karnal,” he said.
Hooda said the state BJP, which had to change the Chief Minister a few months ago, suffered from infighting and its government had lost the majority. The former chief minister said that the JJP, which supported the BJP since 2014 was no longer with the saffron party. He further stated that the JJP had won assembly seats in 2019 on an anti-BJP plank, but in the recent Lok Sabha polls they got even fewer votes than the NOTA option.
Read more: Amid Lok Sabha Poll Review, Congress Plans Organisational Changes
