Haryana election results have again highlighted the severe crisis in the Congress Party and the limitations of the regional satraps. Congress once ruled through regional satraps, but that was when the central leadership was powerful and could threaten states if they didn't follow the essential ideological traits of the organisation. It was Indira Gandhi who learned to take India's diversity along with her. Congress was the natural choice for not only the Brahmins but other powerful upper castes as well as Muslim minorities and Dalits. Slowly, the party tried to follow the Hindutva line but lost disastrously to BJP whenever it tried to outdo them.

The problem is that things are not going Congress's way for various reasons, and the biggest is the role of state leaders, who cannot look beyond their families and jaatis. Some of them definitely went overboard on their 'inclusiveness' and lost the base of their own communities, like Harish Rawat in Uttarakhand. But people like Bhupesh Baghel, Ashok Gahlot, Kamalnath, and now Bhupinder Singh Hooda are simply overhyped leaders who gained everything from the Congress but could not go beyond their own family interests and turned duds at a time when the people were looking to Congress Party as an alternative to the ruling BJP.

It should not be ignored that Siddaramaiah was defeated in Karnataka despite his excellent work by the caste identities. Both Vokalingas and Lingayats never wanted an OBC of the marginalised sections to lead the state. DK Shivakumar continues challenging the chief minister, and the powerful Vokalinga lobby is desperate to have him as chief minister like the Jats of north India. The Jats and Vokalingas-Lingayats are powerful landed Savarna castes ("Savarna" refers to members of the Hindu caste system who are part of the three higher-ranking varnas). However, over the years, the Bahujan narrative setters put them in the OBC category for their vote politics.

The same Bahujan narrative setters keep silent when violence against Dalits occurs in those states dominated by Bahujan politics. BSP chief Ms Mayawati said that though Dalit votes shifted to other parties, the same did not happen as Jats did not vote for Dalit candidates, which is a reality. The Bahujan narrative setters must look beyond their jaati interest and see the diverse contradictions among various communities at the ground level. There is no single community which can be blamed as being 'jaatiwadi' or casteist, as almost everyone comes under that category. The only thing is we all are looking down at someone below us and are in awe of someone above us, as Baba Saheb explained.

We may discuss about EVMs and other administrative issues. They are serious issues, and the Election Commission, political parties, and the highest court have failed collectively to assure us why the number of votes polled shouldn't be equal to that of the VVPAT slips. Why has there been a huge mismatch, and if that actually is, why have the objections not been taken seriously by any agencies or bodies accountable for free and fair polls?

It is essential to understand that narrative-making is important, but it does not really work if you don't have the cadres and leaders representing those communities on the ground. You won't get cadres and leaders of the communities if there is a narrative of the 'dominance' of one particular community in the party organisation and structure. In Haryana, Congress went into the fray with overconfidence that it was returning to power after 10 years of anti-incumbency and incompetent government led by the non-Jats. It wanted to exploit the rising Jat sentiment of returning to power but ignored the vital factor that it was only possible if the Jat leadership was ready to play the role of a facilitator, ensuring the participation of all those communities, particularly Dalits, who were feeling threatened.

Dalits, who constitute about 21% of the Haryana population, can't imagine having a chief minister of their own because 27% of Jats would not like them to be so. The first decade of rule under Bhupinder Singh Hooda brought the Jat-Dalit hostilities into the limelight when Hooda had no interest in working as a conscious keeper of the constitution and providing justice to Dalits. I was witness to various movements led by Dalits for justice, including Bhagana and Mirchpur, where Dalits became victims of Jat hegemony in Haryana, and Hooda did nothing. In fact, the Congress High Command could not pursue Hooda to act against Jats, who were the accused in both cases. Hence, promoting Hooda at the time when Haryana was witnessing huge anti-Jat incumbency was nothing but playing in the hands of the BJP.

Even if the party wanted to ensure it remained in command with powerful Jat votes, it was important to play an inclusive game. The humiliation of Ms Selja, an extremely loyal leader from the Dalit community of Haryana, did not go well with the Dalits in the state. If, even after so many years, a woman of substance who had devoted her life and energy to building the party, Selja can't expect to lead the party or be on its platform as leader of the party, then it reflects the high-handedness of the Hooda family. BJP used this insult for their campaign, and the BSP raised the issue, too.

The anti-Dalit characteristic of Hooda and dominant Jats in the region have not diluted whether it is a reality or narrative, but it has won the game so far. Congress party must understand that their leaders were made to believe that 'Kisan', 'Pahalwan' and 'Jawan' were against BJP, so cutting across the community line, there is a broad anger against the government. Frankly speaking, the Kisan, Pahalwan and Jawan insidiously only cater to the Jat voters of Haryana. Congress did not bother to reach out to Dalits and Rajput votes. Throughout 2024, even when we all know that there was Rajput's desperation to break out of BJP and ally with all other groups who were sympathetic to its issues, Congress leadership refused to accept that they, too, exist.

Despite Rahul Gandhi's loud claims of Social Justice, no collective effort was made in Haryana to reach out to Dalits. The last-minute entry of Ashok Tanwar could not bring back the Dalit votes in the party, and the reason is clear. Congress must understand that political parties are not a social justice movement. A movement can run on one particular agenda targeting one section, but politics has to be inclusive and ensure engagement with all communities. Right now, India's poor and marginalised want a share in the power structure and that happens through their political representation at different levels. While job reservation is important, parties must prepare themselves to take a categorical stand.

Unlike Congress, the BJP succeeded because it has an open stand on various issues. The Dalit votes in Haryana were not one-sided. The Jatav-Chamar votes, over 50% of the Dalit votes in Haryana, actually went along with BSP because Congress had no stand on sub-categorisation. The Balmikis, who make up about 30% of the total voters among the Dalits, mainly voted for the BJP because it supported the demand for categorisation. So the Dalit votes, whether pro or anti, went along with other parties and not to Congress because it refused to take a stand.

At a public meeting, Yogendra Yadav said that an effort is being made to convert the elections to Jat versus non-Jats, and he said the BJP is an expert in doing so. The party did the same in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where it pitched other communities against Yadavas. BJP might have been doing things as per its political strategy, but in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party and Congress are doing the same, which is blaming Rajputs or Thakurs for everything wrong there. Yogendra Yadav has not written a single sentence that the same Thakurs actually voted against BJP in Uttar Pradesh and ensured the defeat of many of the Hindutva candidates, but today, opposition parties are targeting Rajputs in order to take Yogi Adityanath head-on. It might boomerang as the community is nowhere in the judiciary, media, industry, and bureaucracy compared to other powerful communities of Uttar Pradesh.

Haryana's Jat versus non-Jat narrative would not have succeeded if Bhupinder Singh Hooda and others had had the humility to extend their outreach to other marginalised communities, particularly the Dalits. There are about 8% Yadav votes in Haryana, and many areas adjoining Uttar Pradesh impact that. A combined campaign with Akhilesh Yadav would have worked here, but the party's local leadership refused to ally with AAP or Samajwadi Party. Often, an ally party does not have a base in the state but is kept in good humour and given a few seats so that the message goes to the communities about the intent of your party. An alliance with the Samajwadi Party and a joint campaign would have served the purpose, but Bhupinder Singh Hooda was not interested. It would have served better than allying with AAP.

The Congress-AAP alliance failed because of the ambitious project of AAP, which the BJP exploited. They work on different directions and multiple fronts to defeat the 'enemy' so Ram Rahim of Dera Sacha Sauda got released on parole and Arvind Kejriwal getting bail from the highest court during the same period can't be ruled out for foiling the Congress chances in the state. Apart from that, it is also visible that several candidates who were not given tickets from the Congress party contested as independent candidates and got a handsome share of votes, causing the party's defeat. Though this happened in every party, it is also a reality that Hooda dominated everything as he was sure he would be in power. He wanted to ensure that he became chief minister after the victory without interference from the party's High Command.

Bhupinder Hooda and his dream to rule Haryana have ended, but Congress was severely harmed. Congress party now needs to rebuild the party and bring all stakeholders together. Bring the issues that complement, and even when Rahul Gandhi raises the Caste Census and reservation issue, this time, it must be done without offending anyone. There is a big difference between political parties and civil society or intellectuals. While political parties have to cater to all, intellectuals and civil society leaders/influencers are mostly agenda-driven and might speak something out of conviction but far away from ground realities. Political parties can't behave as charitable organisations or civil society watchdog groups. Congress also needed to be careful of the 'loyal' YouTubers who had no agenda other than getting likes and resources. The party got carried away with the agenda-setters on social media. They remain far from the ground realities and just talk about their 'mann ki baat'.

Congress needs to become a party for all, not one jaati or a couple of jaatis. For that, it will have to weave a narrative where every stakeholder feels safe and committed. For that to happen, the party needs to rebuild the party organisations in all the states with new blood. Though Congress's defeat in Haryana is shocking for the party, it may be a boon for Rahul Gandhi and others. After being in power, Bhupinder Singh Hooda would have behaved similarly to other leaders, such as Ashok Gehlot, Kamalnath, Amarinder Singh, etc. He never followed the party line when Dalits were being attacked in Haryana. Congress High Command was helpless because regional satraps could damage the party if it did not benefit them, and therefore, could not act against them. Hooda has now joined the ranks of Ashok Gehlot, Kamalnath, Bhupesh Bhagel and Harish Rawat. The time has come for the party to move on and build up the party by bringing young leaders from different communities that reflect the ground realities of the state.

All this is not to discount the unfair means the ruling party adopted, the disappointing role of the Election Commission, the issues of fairness and EVMs. They remain vital for the health of democracy, but we also know that despite that, parties have won elections. If the party and many others feel that EVMs have been manipulated and hacked, they must approach the court in all seriousness. Administrative issues of fair play are critical, but Congress committed blunders that can not be ignored.

Therefore, Congress would do well to do a caste census of the party structure to understand what ails the party and the leaders dominant in the party structure yet unable to fetch votes for the party. Get a complete figure of communities in the organisations and link it with the state figures. A complete overhaul of the Congress party is impossible without a 'jaati-janganana' or 'caste census' of the entire party structure. Rahul Gandhi, advocating the caste census and social justice issues everywhere, needs to start cleaning his home first, as his social justice agenda will remain unimplementable if there are no takers of that within his own party. But will the party ever listen?