Congress is unable to choose the leader of opposition

The first full-time session of the Assembly is about to begin in Haryana, but the Congress has not yet been able to choose its leader in the Assembly. That too, when 45 days have passed since the election results were announced. The question is being raised that why even after a month, the Congress has not been able to decide on this post?

The leader of the legislative party is the leader of the opposition in the assembly. The job of the Leader of the Opposition is to keep the opposition MLAs united on the floor and corner the government on major issues.

Is Congress unable to recover from defeat?

One of the major reasons for not being able to decide on the Leader of the Opposition is the inability to recover from the defeat. Many senior Congress leaders are still engaged in reviewing the defeat. The party is also constantly complaining to the Election Commission. The party believes that its candidates lost due to voting and EVMs at many booths.

The Congress had formed a committee under the leadership of former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and Rajasthan Congress leader Harish Chaudhary to review the defeat in Haryana.

This committee was asked to review all those aspects due to which the party had to face defeat. The committee was also entrusted with the responsibility of identifying the leaders responsible for the defeat.

It is being said that the committee has not yet submitted the complete report to the Congress high command.

Confusion continues over the face

37 Congress MLAs have reached the House by winning this election. Out of these, 31 MLAs belong to the Bhupinder Singh Hooda faction. The Hooda faction is trying to make someone close to it the leader of the opposition. For this, many names have also been recommended to the Congress high command by the faction.

At the same time, strong leaders Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala are insisting on making someone other than the Hooda faction the leader of the opposition. Tensions were also seen regarding this in the meeting of the legislature party in Chandigarh. However, the final decision was left to the high command.

The Congress high command is currently busy with the Jharkhand and Maharashtra elections.

Caste equation is also a factor
In Haryana, the Congress has been moving ahead with the help of Jat and Dalit equation. Before the 2024 elections, Chaudhary Udaybhan of the Dalit community was given the chair of the state president, while Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Jat community was given the position of Leader of the Opposition.

This time the Congress has got the vote of the Jat community one-sidedly. At the same time, compared to the Lok Sabha elections, this time there has been a dent in the Dalit vote bank. The population of Dalits and Jats in Haryana is about 40 percent. In such a situation, it is being said that the Congress will again work to balance this equation.

Last time Udaybhan of the Dalit community had the chair of the state president. Udaybhan could not win the MLA seat from Hodal. In such a situation, his chair is also in danger. It is being said that one of the reasons for not being elected as the leader of the legislative party is the decision on the state president.

Apart from these 3 reasons, the Congress high command is also confused about choosing the Leader of the Opposition. If any faction gets a big responsibility and they are accused of defeating Congress candidates, then it can bring disrepute to the party.

That is why Congress wants to decide on this issue only after knowing all the angles.

Congress lost in Haryana due to internal conflict

Congress which had gained 44 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, was reduced to 37 seats in the assembly elections held just four days later. The main reason for Congress's defeat was internal factionalism. Due to the tussle between Selja and Hooda factions, Congress lost on about a dozen seats.

Many close aides of Kumari Selja also had to face defeat in this election. Among them, Pradeep Chaudhary and Shamsher Gogi are prominent. After the defeat in the election, former MLA of Assandh Gogi had directly attacked the Hooda faction.

On the other hand, Congress had to face defeat in Selja's village and assembly constituency as well. Experts believe that the entire election in Haryana became Jat versus non-Jat, due to which the traditional Dalits of Congress also shifted towards BJP.