Devendra Dwivedi, Congress idealogue and a key adviser of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, used to often say that politics has its own logic and its own illogic as well. His observations were very apt and time and again there have been political actions, whose rationale has always been difficult to comprehend. One such recent example is the tie up, which the Congress has announced with the Aam Aadmi Party, in Haryana, despite it being its principal adversary, in both Delhi and Punjab. The AAP has almost negligible presence in Haryana and in the past few months, the Delhi unit of the Congress has been waging a consistent campaign to discredit it in the capital. The two parties had aligned with each other for the Parliamentary polls but have now a very hostile relationship with each other. Earlier, in Punjab, the two parties had contested against each other and this confrontation had led to a lot of bitterness, which still exists.
Thus, with this background, no one was mentally prepared to accept that the party leadership would go in for an alliance with AAP in Haryana, where it is well placed, and needs no crutches to march to victory over the BJP, a party that has been power for ten years, and is now facing a huge anti-incumbency. The entire exercise lacks logic, and would create problems within the Congress since those who are denied tickets in the constituencies which finally go to AAP, would certainly raise a banner of revolt, thus causing uncertainty in these very areas for the INDIA bloc partner to win. AAP is going through a lean phase and with Arvind Kejriwal still behind bars, it is struggling to keep itself relevant. Had it contested the Haryana elections on its own, it would have been difficult for its candidates to save their security deposits. The tie-up has given a lease of life to the party and now it can certainly hope of making a successful electoral plunge in the Assembly polls.
Within the Congress, the matter is being viewed differently by different people. Many senior leaders who have no stake in the polls and otherwise too have little understanding of electoral politics are happy with the decision. For them, it amounts to accommodating an INDIA bloc partner in order to send a larger message that the alliance at the national level was on. In their estimation, the primary objective of the INDIA bloc should be to weaken the BJP throughout the country and for that every party has to make a sacrifice. Thus, by contesting the polls along with AAP in Haryana, the Congress would try to ensure that no anti-BJP votes get divided, leading to the defeat of the Saffron brigade. This reasoning is not going well with the workers but no one amongst the seniors is willing to convey this dissatisfaction to the High Command. The second point which is being discussed is that on the counsel of some politically naïve activists, having access to the top leadership, a message is sought to be conveyed, that if the victory takes place in these polls, the credit for it should go to the INDIA bloc and not to any individual leader of the Congress, where factionalism is very pronounced. It is common knowledge that former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has emerged as the rallying point for most Congressmen in the State, and is likely to be the head of the government, if the party wins the Assembly polls.
His rivals, Kumari Selja, Randeep Surjewala and some others are finding it difficult to digest this and thus have also extended their claim for the top job.
The High Command on its part, is following its old policy which is that the elected MLAs would elect the leader of the Legislative party under the overall supervision of the High Command, which would have the final say in this matter. As a principle, this policy is fine, but there have to be exceptions to the rule. On the issue of tie-up with the AAP, the stakes are too high for the State leaders, and thus they are not likely to speak on the subject, preferring to be silent. Therefore, it is for the High Command to see the fall out and understand the implications of this tie-up which could be more far reaching than merely sending a message in support of the INDIA bloc. The Congress should not be accommodating political adversaries even if they are in alliance with them, at the cost of its own existence. This is a matter which needs to be clearly comprehended. The problem within the Congress is that certain leaders, with no ground knowledge of many states, continue to delve into feeding inaccurate information to top leaders.
Many in the party have repeatedly questioned the importance given to such leaders, who have never even contested any major polls and thus are oblivious of the ground realities. There are reservations also on the role of the likes of Madhusudan Mistry, whose importance in the party despite his previous allegiance to the BJP, is inexplainable. The BJP has already beaten the Congress in coming out with its first list, but the grand old party can still retrieve its position by sending a strong message to its leaders in Haryana, that if they in any manner try to diminish the party’s chances due to their own ambitions, they would be dealt with in an appropriate manner. Whether anyone likes it or not, Hooda is the biggest hope for the party with his mass connect and acceptability. Any effort to belittle him would be to the peril of the Congress. On another note, the debate over the logic or