Party must identify those behind Haryana loss: Cong's Selja

A blame game began in the Congress on Tuesday as it failed in its bid to come back to power in Haryana after 10 years, with senior party leader Kumari Selja saying the party high command should assess all reasons that led to the disappointing result and identify the people responsible.

The Bharatiya Janata artyP scored a record hat-trick of wins in the state, bucking anti-incumbency and overcoming the setback in Lok Sabha polls when its tally dropped from 10 in 2019 to five seats.

The knives were out in the Congress even before the declaration of final results, as party veteran Kumari Selja, who had been sulking during the election which was effectively led by former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, said that 'it will not be business as usual' and called for introspection.

"The Haryana poll results are disappointing and I am pained at the disappointment of the Congress workers in the state who have worked very hard and were looking forward to forming their government after 10 years.

"It will not be business as usual in Haryana and I am sure the Congress high command would identify those who negated the efforts to bring the party to power after 10 years," she told reporters.

The Sirsa Lok Sabha MP and former union minister said she was sure that the Congress high command would go into all aspects that led to such results and would identify the reasons and those responsible for bringing such results.

"I'm sure the party will look into all aspects that led to such results in Haryana," Selja said.

She referred to factors affecting the organisation like taking everyone along and ensuring coordination among all the leaders in the state.

A Sonia Gandhi loyalist, Selja is one of the prominent Dalit leaders in Haryana but has been engaged in a running battle with Hooda.

She has worked in various capacities in the party organisation and governments for almost three and a half decades and even made a strong pitch for the chief minister's post ahead of assembly polls.

However, she skipped most of the poll campaign due to differences with Hooda.

The 62-year-old daughter of former Union minister late Chaudhary Dalbir Singh started her political career in the Mahila Congress in 1990 and became an MP from Sirsa in 1991.

At the age of 29, she was inducted into the P V Narasimha Rao government in 1992 as Deputy Minister for Education and Culture.

Selja served as a Union minister in the erstwhile Congress-led United Progressive Alliance governments in 2009 and 2014.

She is a five-time Lok Sabha MP, having been elected to the Lok Sabha from Sirsa in 1991, 1996 and 2024, and from Ambala in 2004 and 2009. In 2014, she was nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

Selja has held several positions in the Congress and is currently general secretary in-charge for party affairs in Uttarakhand. She earlier held the same position in Chhattisgarh, where the last assembly elections were held under her charge.

The Congress, however, lost the state to the BJP.

In November 2015, Kumari Selja created a stir in the Upper House by claiming that she was asked about her caste when she visited Dwarka temple in Gujarat as a cabinet minister. Her remarks were contested by BJP members.

She was the Haryana unit president during the 2019 assembly elections which the Congress lost after the 10-year rule of Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.

Selja was learnt to be upset after the party gave a free hand to Hooda in ticket distribution this time, with most candidates who got the tickets being loyalists of the two-time ex-CM.

Riding on the discontent within the Congress, Union Minister and senior BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar had even invited Selja to join the saffron party.

Later, Selja joined the poll campaign in party leader Rahul Gandhi's poll rally in Assandh in Karnal.

As many as 72 tickets out of 90 were distributed on Hooda's advice. Sources say Selja was not even able to secure tickets for candidates in her own home turf of Sirsa.

Selja's stature in Haryana politics had increased after she registered victory from the Sirsa Lok Sabha seat in the parliamentary polls this year. With this victory, she became the seventh woman in Haryana to enter the lower house of Parliament.

She had trounced BJP's Ashok Tanwar by a margin of 2,68,497 from the Sirsa reserved seat. Tanwar rejoined the Congress a few days ago. But the effort to give the impression of Dalit solidarity appeared to have backfired with segments seeing it as a bid to cut an already sulking Selja to size.

Selja enjoys a good support base in many districts including Sirsa, Ambala and Hisar.

She did her schooling in Delhi and completed her MA and MPhil in English from Panjab University, Chandigarh.