The Congress, notwithstanding its improved performance in the Lok Sabha election, is back to square one after its dismal show in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir — at the receiving end of harsh criticism from allies. Less than 24 hours after the declaration of results, INDIA bloc allies including Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress and others have issued sharp takedowns. Even the normally reticent Rashtriya Janata Dal and Kashmir ally Omar Abdullah, could not resist a few digs.
Most of these were focused on what they allege is the Congress's lack of respect for allies, especially the smaller, regional ones, pointing out that reach, more than size, is crucial during election.
The "arrogance" tag from allies have hung onto Congress for over a decade. Now more than the Central leaders, it is the state leaders who are being blamed after a series of episodes when smaller parties had been rebuffed.
Cases in point were Kamal Nath's refusal to allot seats to Samajwadi Party during the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections last year, Delhi and Punjab Congress leaders' perpetual reluctance to share seats with AAP. To this has been added the name of Bhupinder Hooda, whose team had refused to share space with AAP in Haryana. In each case, the state leaders have overridden the advice from Central leaders.
The Congress's Central leadership is being blamed for allowing too much leeway to state leaders, who at every instance have ignored messages from Delhi. The Congress high command is also being blamed for failing to rein in factionalism, which has caused hiccups in states including Karnataka ahead of government formation. Or as in the case of Haryana, crashed the campaign.
The sharpest and most critical of jabs came from Uddhav Thackeray's faction of Shiv Sena, Congress's Maharashtra ally. Its timing is critical — ahead of the elections in the western state and amid a tussle over seat sharing. the Congress, after its hugely improved performance in the state in the Lok Sabha election, has been reluctant to hand over six seats in Nagpur, considered its stronghold.
An editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamna criticised the Congress for failing to accommodate alliance partners like the AAP or control the "disobedience of local leaders". It even pointed out similar circumstances in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh last year, indicating that a flexible attitude could have changed the outcome of the elections.
A similar criticism came from Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, which had refused to allot Congress more than two seats ahead of the Lok Sabha election following which talks for state-level alliance broke down, even though the INDIA bloc remained intact.
"This attitude leads to electoral losses – 'if we feel we're winning, we will not accommodate a regional party but, in states where we're down, regional parties must accommodate us," said Trinamool's Saket Gokhale.
"The Congress needs to introspect, focus on accommodative politics… Alliance principles should be respected… Big parties should respect regional parties," said RJD national spokesperson Professor Subodh Mehta.
The Samajwadi Party, reluctant to share seats with Congress since the 2017 assembly polls rout, has thumbs downed on a fresh request for by-polls to 10 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats later this year.
National Conference chief Omar Abdullah, in an interview with NDTV, spoke of the Congress being doubly unhappy after being "trolled" by allies.
The Congress has not accepted the results in Haryana, and insisted on a meeting with the Election Commission. Today, Rahul Gandhi, in a post on X, said, "We are analysing the unexpected results of Haryana. We will inform the Election Commission about the complaints coming from many assembly constituencies".
