With the poll dates announcement, the Haryana Congress is looking to dethrone the BJP and return to power in the state after warming the opposition benches for a decade. While the poll dates are out, all eyes are on the political parties and their ticket distribution. With the anti-incumbency in play, the ticket distribution will hold a key this time for both the big parties. However, to avoid a possible rebellion scenario that could hurt the party’s poll prospects, Congress has sent a clear message to leaders who could have landed the party into troubled waters. 

Days before, the Haryana branch of the ruling BJP challenged the Congress to announce Kumari Selja as their chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming state Assembly elections, questioning the party’s commitment to the welfare of the SC community.

Lok Sabha MP Kumari Selja is former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s bete noire. Then there is Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala who supports Selja. While the Selja-Surjewala faction wants their say in the candidate selection, the process is likely to be dominated by the old guards -the Hooda faction.

Hooda has bounced back to the race as he promised Rahul Gandhi that this is his last election. Hooda recently emphasized that he is ‘neither tired nor retired’, but acknowledged that the decision on who will become Chief Minister will rest with the Congress high command. 

If reports are to be believed, both Selja and Surjewala have expressed their desires to contest the assembly polls. This was likely to catalyse the factionalism and internal tussle in the Haryana Congress and the party has thus asked the Hooda faction to accommodate the views of the rival-Selja faction and work on the inter-party fault lines. The party asked the leaders to not send the wrong message to the respective caste groups. 

Now, the party has also made it clear the party’s members of Parliament, be it from the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, won’t be allowed to contest the assembly polls and they should instead focus on campaigning. However, Deepak Babaria, the AICC in-charge for Haryana, maintained that the final decision about who will contest the polls lies with the party’s high command. 

All 90 seats of Haryana will go to the polls on October 1 while the counting of votes will take place on October 4.