BJP and Congress Intensify Campaigns Ahead of Haryana Assembly Elections

New Delhi: As Haryana gears up for Assembly elections in October, both the BJP and the Congress have begun intensifying their election strategies. Union home minister Amit Shah is set to lead the charge for the BJP with a crucial meeting of the party’s executive at Kurukshetra on June 29. For its part, the Congress had last week launched a comprehensive "100-day meeting" with workers across the state. Top Congress brass are also expected to hold discussions with state leaders to fine-tune their electoral approach amid claims of factionalism among state leaders.

After losing five Lok Sabha seats to the Congress in the recently concluded general election, the BJP has turned its attention to the Haryana Assembly elections. The BJP's meeting scheduled for Saturday came days after the saffron party held back-to-back meetings headed by the party’s elections in-charge and Union minister Dharmendera Pradhan and co-in-charge Biplab Deb.

Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini, who also serves as the state BJP chief, and Union minister and former CM Manohar Lal Khattar will also be present at the meeting. Among the state leaders who will be part of the meeting are former state BJP president Om Parkash Dhankar, former minister Capt. Abhimanyu and Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Barala, along with around 2,500 members of the state executive.

On its part, the Haryana Congress had already kicked off holding district-level worker meetings. The AICC in-charge for Haryana Deepak Babaria on Wednesday met party president Mallikarjun Kharge, along with senior leaders Rahul Gandhi and K.C. Venugopal, to chalk out a strategy for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

After the meeting, Mr Babaria said, "I met the top brass along with 40 leaders of the party's Haryana unit. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, our voteshare increased to 47.69 per cent in the state, which Mr Gandhi appreciated and asked us to work together to ensure the party's victory in the state Assembly polls... We can say with confidence that we are going to win in the state Assembly polls and will get more than 70 seats."

He also said that the Congress will go solo in the Assembly polls. But if there is any other proposal from other parties coming to the high command, then things may change.

A day before the crucial meeting, Mr Babaria met all the party candidates who had contested the Lok Sabha polls. However, as per sources, except Kumari Selja, who is at loggerhead with the state leadership, eight, including four unsuccessful candidates, met him and gave feedback on the responses of voters and decemberists in the party.

After the worker’s meeting, at the district level, the Congress will hold similar interactions at the Assembly level in all 90 seats. It is pertinent to mention that compared to all the states, the INDIA bloc got the highest 47.6% votes in Haryana. In contrast to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, this time the Congress had taken the lead in 46 Assembly segments out of the total 90, The Congress party's vote share has increased by 15 per cent, while the BJP's share has declined by nearly 12 per cent.