New Delhi:

After the resounding defeat in the recent Haryana Assembly elections, Congress’ General Secretary and Haryana in-charge, Deepak Babaria, has offered to resign, taking moral responsibility for the party’s dismal showing. The offer comes amid internal party deliberations on the reasons behind the disastrous poll performance, which shattered Congress’s hopes of making a comeback after a decade in the Opposition and allowed the BJP to achieve a hat-trick of Assembly elections victory. 

The BJP managed to defy anti-incumbency, securing a third consecutive term in Haryana, while the Congress was left scrambling for answers. The BJP’s electoral victory, their best-ever in the state, saw them win 48 seats – 11 more than the Congress – leaving little room for the opposition to recover. Smaller players, such as the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), were decimated, while the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) could only manage two seats.

Congress had heavily relied on Dalit and Jat voters, groups that constitute nearly 20 per cent and 25 per cent of Haryana’s population, respectively. However, the BJP made significant inroads into both, leaving the Congress struggling to hold onto its traditional support bases.

The BJP managed to flip eight of the 17 Scheduled Caste (SC) seats, including Nilokheri, Pataudi, Kharkhauda, Hodal, Bawal, Narwana, Israna, and Bawani Khera. The most significant upset came in Hodal, where Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan lost to BJP’s Harinder Singh.

Despite these losses, the Congress held onto the remaining nine SC seats but failed to make any decisive gains. In comparison, the BJP’s performance marked an improvement from the 2019 elections, when it won only five SC seats.

Following his party’s defeat, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed his disappointment with the election results. In his first reaction, he described the outcome as “unexpected” and said the party was conducting an internal analysis to understand the reasons behind the loss. Mr Gandhi thanked the people of Haryana for their support and promised to continue fighting for “rights, social and economic justice, and the truth.” 
 

New Delhi:

The Congress is offering “good small numbers” of seats in Haryana to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in an effort to forge a pre-poll alliance ahead of the October 5 Assembly elections, state Congress in-charge Deepak Babaria said after a meeting with AAP leader Raghav Chadha on Saturday.

Deepak Babaria told IANS that negotiations are underway and it is likely that the INDIA bloc partners will reach a deal by Sunday.

“Negotiations are going on, we will see where adjustments can be made,” he said.

Asked the number of seats the AAP will get, the Congress leader didn’t divulge any exact figure but said, “Good small numbers”.

On Friday, AAP leader Chadha said that the two parties are engaged in last-minute negotiations ”for the interest of the people of the Haryana”, adding that nothing ”conclusive”, however, has been reached yet on pre-poll coalition.

The AAP Rajya Sabha member told IANS that the talks are moving in a ”positive direction” and both parties are hopeful of a coalition ahead of the Assembly elections.

“Talks are going on. For the interest of Haryana, its people as well as the country, we are exploring this coalition. We are hopeful and making all efforts to reach a common ground,” Chadha said.

The talks of a pre-poll coalition between the two parties gathered steam after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed the desire at the recent Haryana screening committee meeting to align with like-minded parties to dislodge the BJP from power.

The Congress MP also asked Haryana state leaders and in-charges to explore an alliance with AAP to rule out the division of votes and also to present the INDIA bloc as a united and potent force in the poll-bound state.

Rahul Gandhi’s statement was welcomed by the AAP.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, out of the 10 seats in Haryana, the BJP saw its tally reduced to five a clean sweep in 2019, while the INDIA bloc clinched the remaining five seats.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)