Although the meeting was short, Rahul Gandhi got his point across. said the loss was brought about by the self-centredness of the Haryana Congress leaders.
Gandhi was present at the review meeting that Mallikarjun Kharge, the party president, summoned at his home. KC Venugopal, Ajay Maken, Ashok Gehlot, and Deepak Babaria were among the observers who were also present.
When it came time for Gandhi to speak, according to sources, he remained mainly silent but made two powerful remarks. First, he sought a thorough assessment on the issues with counting, believing that the Election Commission (EC) and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) had a lot of questions to answer.
However, the second point caused the room to go silent. He claimed that although the election was one that could have been won, the local leaders were more focused on advancing themselves than the party. When everyone continued blaming the EVMs, Gandhi became irate. He reportedly stated that while he was interested in the specifics, the important thing was that the leaders “fought among themselves and didn’t think of the party.” Gandhi said this, stood up, and left.
According to sources, he attacked everyone, not just the Hoodas. A committee is being formed to investigate the cause of the loss for this reason.
Infighting has previously cost the Congress an election. Some recent examples are Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan.
Not that Gandhi didn’t know about it. For this reason, he intervened to make sure that Kumari Selja and Hoodas collaborated, based on information from the ground. However, as the two could never work together, his attempt to convince them to hold hands was only symbolic.
The next issue for Gandhi is Maharashtra. The Congress is also dealing with severe internal discord, and the party can no longer afford to take a chance. The issue is that, in Maharashtra, in contrast to Haryana, the Congress is allied with both the Sena of Uddhav Thackeray and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Congress has already been informed that internal strife might be detrimental to them. Putting the house in order was crucial, but will Gandhi be able to ensure that his outrage at the Haryana review meeting causes the rival leaders to reconsider and reconcile?
According to sources, the top Congress leadership is considering taking swift action against a few Haryana Congress leaders in order to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“The party has decided to depute a Technical Team to look into complaints and discrepancies noted by our candidates,” the Congress said in a statement amid rumours and media reports. The Congress party will respond in-depth based on the findings of the fact-finding team’s report.”
