Vivek Gupta 
Chandigarh: Bharatiya Janata Party’s historic win in Haryana has stunned people across the political spectrum. Prominent farmer leader and former governor Satya Pal Malik feels that the Congress’s inner workings have been responsible for its poll debacle.
He says that while the Congress’s central leadership had done the work to pave for the party’s possible victory in Haryana, the state leadership did not reciprocate in a similar fashion, was overconfident and engaged in infighting till the very end.
Excerpts from the chat are below.
What was your assessment before the October 8 vote counting in Haryana and how did you read the verdict?
From the feedback I was getting from different sources on the ground, I was fully sure that BJP was heading for a massive defeat in Haryana and Congress was set to form the government with a huge mandate. But the final results are unbelievable and indigestible.
What, according to you, went wrong in the Congress?
BJP is a 24-hour political machinery but such a culture is missing in Congress. People in the party are full of arrogance. The kind of effort Rahul Gandhi puts in, if one-fourth of it had been spent by the party’s state leadership in Haryana, Congress would not have lost this election. I hold the overall working of the Congress responsible for its poll debacle in Haryana.
How do you assess the Congress’s internal rift between Jat leader Bhupinder Hooda and Dalit leader Kumari Selja?
If the party had gone to the Haryana election unitedly, the results would have been different. Till the last day of the campaign, Selja was in dissidence. The inner disagreements between them should have been settled much before the election. I am 100% sure that the Dalit vote had gone away from Congress due to Selja’s dissidence.
How could Congress have settled their differences?
If I was a Congress leader, I would have told them to work together or get out of the party. The future of institutions is not dependent on a few individuals. The party lost Haryana due to infighting and the arrogance of the state leadership. The party, which has remained in opposition for long, tends to be more visible on the ground. But my question here is – were they even campaigning enough on the ground?
Also read: Six Factors That Helped BJP Defy Anti-incumbency to Win a Third Term in Haryana
Do you believe Rahul Gandhi’s vision of social justice and giving equal space to all social groups could not be translated in Haryana polls?
Rahul Gandhi is making absolute sense. He is a wonderful boy, enthusiastic and full of hope. But the problem is with the state units of the party. I had told state leaders during Haryana elections that I was available for campaigning. But I was not invited anywhere for canvassing. Whatever few meetings I held were with my own people. The leaders here were self-obsessed and keen to show that it is in their own names that they are fighting the polls.
You think things would have gone differently for Congress if you were actively involved in Haryana campaigning?
But they, state leaders, were not interested. They thought they were winning and did not need anyone’s support. In fact, they used to react negatively. If they were advised to call someone for campaigning, their response was, ‘What is the need, we are here.’
It is being debated that Hooda-Selja fight helped BJP do reverse polarisation and centred the whole election on a Jat versus non-Jat plank. What is your opinion?
It was true to some extent. While the Haryana election did not fully shift to a ‘Jat verses all’ narrative, but Dalits and other backward communities disturbed Congress’s plans due to the Saini factor [the outgoing and returning chief minister is BJP’s OBC leader Nayab Singh Saini] and the Selja factor.
What about the Jat community, did they also vote against Congress or did they stand behind the party?
I believe they may have supported the party but then it is not like they were compelled to vote for it in any way. Jat leaders follow their own course of action.
What corrections could the Congress do?
The central leadership must tell the state leadership to behave appropriately or get out of the party. The party will virtually be dead here if things remain as usual.
What is your assessment of BJP’s historic third tenure in Haryana?
One positive aspect in BJP is that it does politics 24 hours of the day. Besides, the party’s many organisations keep it mobilised all the time. BJP is an alive party and Congress is the opposite of it. In Haryana Congress, district committees were not formed. What polls will you win this way?
Do you see any impact of the Haryana verdict on the upcoming Maharashtra and Jharkhand polls?
I don’t see any impact. The situation in Maharashtra is different. All senior leaders associated with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are sensible people. They are not arrogant, unlike people here in Haryana. I recently met MVA leaders and I see the potential of the grand alliance to form a government there.