New Delhi:

Still reeling from its shock defeat in Haryana, the Congress held a high-level review meeting on Thursday to assess the possible reasons for the loss with a focus on learning lessons, given the impending elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Sources said infighting, the impact of not allying with the AAP and complaints of “discrepancies” in electronic voting machines (EVMs) were all discussed. 

The meeting was attended by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal and senior observers for the polls Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken, among others. The Congress’ Haryana in-charge Deepak Babaria joined the meeting via video link.

“All of us discussed the Assembly elections in detail. There was a lot of difference between exit polls and actual results. Not just us, even you will agree that the results were unexpected and nobody thought they would turn out this way. This, and the possible reasons for it, were also discussed,” Mr Maken said after the meeting.

To a question on infighting within the Congress and whether that could have been a reason for the party failing to dislodge the BJP in Haryana, Mr Maken said, “There are various reasons, from the Election Commission to internal differences, we have discussed all that. Such a big upset…we cannot discuss everything in an hour and a half,” he added.

The Congress has also set up a technical team to look into the EVM discrepancies.

‘Plain Speaking’

Party sources told NDTV there was plain speaking on the part of Mr Kharge, Mr Gandhi and others who attended the meeting. Some of the key talking points were the role of Independents, the impact of the AAP – with which alliance talks fell through at the last moment – and other coalitions, as well as the infighting within the Congress.

Ahead of the elections, there were signs of factionalism between the camps of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who reportedly got a say in picking most of the candidates, and senior leader Kumari Selja, whose absence from a chunk of the campaign raised eyebrows. There was also talk of Ms Selja jumping ship and joining the BJP.

The factionalism is seen as having played a key role in the Congress remaining restricted to 37 seats in the 90-member Assembly despite the contest proving to be largely bipolar. The BJP, which had been in power in Haryana for 10 years, won a record third term and put in its best-ever performance in the state despite battling anti-incumbency and perceived anger from certain sections, including farmers, sportspersons and armed forces aspirants. It won 48 seats, crossing the majority mark on its own. 

Looking Ahead

Sources said the party realises that the upcoming elections in Jharkhand and, especially,  Maharashtra are critical. This, they said, was reflected in Mr Kharge and Mr Gandhi meeting Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren to discuss election strategy. The Congress is in an alliance with Mr Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha at the state as well as national levels as part of the INDIA grouping. 

Some of the important lessons from the Haryana defeat, according to sources, were that the party cannot afford to be overconfident and that secular forces have to remain united. They added that given its much-improved showing in the Lok Sabha elections, the party is confident that it can learn the right lessons and approach the Maharashtra and Jharkhand polls with the right strategy and mindset.

EVM Issue

After the election results were declared on Tuesday, the Congress had said that the outcome in Haryana was a victory for “manipulation and subverting the will of the people” and the party cannot accept it. 

“We have received very serious complaints about the process of counting and the functioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in at least three districts in Haryana… There are serious questions on the integrity of the instruments of this system, namely EVMs, and the extraordinary pressure that has been brought to bear on local administration officials,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had said.

A delegation of senior Congress leaders, including Mr Venugopal, Mr Ramesh, Mr Hooda and Ashok Gehlot met Election Commission officials on Wednesday and handed over a memorandum with specific complaints received from Haryana.