Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said on Saturday that the party is assessing the results of the Haryana Assembly elections and has requested booth-wise reports to determine the reasons behind their defeat.
Kharge emphasised that the party is particularly focused on understanding the Haryana loss as it prepares for upcoming elections in other states. He dismissed the idea that this result will affect the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly election.
“We are doing the analysis, along with Rahul Gandhi and other leaders.I have held a meeting a couple of days ago to analyze and we are getting booth-wise reports. How much fault lies with our workers, what is the role of our leaders, and what happened, on all that we are getting report booth-wise, based on it we will analyze and decide on further course of action,” Kharge said.
Speaking to reporters, Kharge noted that the party is paying special attention to the Haryana outcome because there was a general expectation that Congress would win. “What happened, we are analyzing it, after that we will decide on what to do. We will have to face several elections in the days ahead, we will certainly look into it, keeping it (upcoming elections) in mind,” he added.
When asked if the Haryana results will influence the Maharashtra polls, Kharge responded, “One election result will not have an impact on election in another state, but the question is why the results were like this, despite people in our favor?”
He further questioned the unexpected outcome, “We could have understood if the opinion was 50:50, with one half saying results will be in our favor and the other half saying otherwise, but despite the entire country including media, channels, print media, leaders and public opinion in our favor, what was the reason behind this result? We have to find it.”
Kharge reserved his comments on any doubts regarding the election process until the booth-wise report is fully analysed. As the results of Haryana polls came favouring BJP for the third consecutive time,Congress rejected the election mandate, alleging that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were tampered with. This marks the first time a major political party in India has refused to accept election results on such grounds.
The allegation came amidst internal discord within the party’s Haryana unit as senior Congress leaders Kumari Selja and Bhupinder Singh Hooda acknowledged their defeat in the state. Selja accused the Hooda faction of being responsible for the party’s subpar performance. On the other hand, Hooda has stated that he would accept the results “under protest,” expressing his surprise at the outcome.