Why the knives are out for Congress in INDIA

The twin election results on Tuesday brought back two sore points for the Congress. The party needed allies to climb to power in states, and it failed in straight fights with the BJP. This has been noticed by its alliance partners, and the knives are out.

After the Haryana debacle, the Congress would be at the mercy of its alliance partners, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Aam Aadmi Party in Maharashtra and Delhi respectively. (Images: PTI)

On Tuesday, the Congress didn't lose just Haryana, it lost its negotiating muscle. And the knives are out. As the results of Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir trickled in, the Congress had to deal with two, years-old sore points.

The result in Jammu and Kashmir showed that the Congress still needed crutches to climb. The one from Haryana cemented the idea of how the Congress still stumbled in a head-to-head fight with the BJP.

These will also have a bearing on the three upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi.

In J&K, the Congress entered the fray as a junior ally of the Valley-based National Conference (NC).

While the National Conference won 42 of the 51 seats it contested, the Congress won just 6 of the 32 seats.

The Congress will share power in J&K because of its alliance partner, the National Conference. In Jharkhand too, which goes to polls in November, the Congress is a junior partner of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). To remain relevant, it will need to latch on to the JMM.

This was a derivative of the J&K poll result.

On the same day, another takeaway emerged from Haryana -- the Congress failed in a direct fight against the BJP, despite 10 years of anti-incumbency against the saffron party.

The Haryana loss in a straight fight came after defeats in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

Of these, the Madhya Pradesh debacle stands out as the Congress failed to capitalise on the 15-year anti-incumbency in the heartland state.

The twin messages were seized upon by INDIA bloc alliance partners, sending the Congress at a disadvantage at the negotiating table.

"The Congress party needs to think about its strategy too. Because wherever there is a direct fight with the BJP, the Congress party gets weakened. Why does it happen? Rework the entire alliance...," Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said on Tuesday.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) is an alliance partner of the Congress in Maharashtra, which is heading to the polls next.

Having almost doubled its seats in the Lok Sabha election to 99, the Congress tried to assert itself as the leader of the INDIA bloc.

In September, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said the Congress, being the largest in the Maharashtra alliance, should have the privilege of naming the chief minister candidate.

"I’ve claimed that the largest party should get this privilege, and I think the Congress party will be the largest party," Chavan said at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai in September.

That privilege might have been lost after the Haryana election. At least, that is what was signalled by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi.

The Congress's alliance woes aren't limited to Maharashtra. Delhi is where it will see tough negotiations with the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Delhi is likely to see an election before February.

"Let us see what the results are in Haryana. The biggest lesson from this is that one should never be overconfident in elections," Kejriwal told AAP municipal councillors in New Delhi.

Though Kejriwal was speaking to AAP members, his words were seen being directed at the Congress.

An "overconfident" Congress in Haryana refused to get into an alliance with the AAP. Kejriwal might be in the mood of returning the favour to the Congress in Delhi, where the AAP has wowed with stellar performance in the last two Assembly polls.

Tuesday was a sobering lesson for the Congress, which was buoyed by the Lok Sabha election and asserted itself as the undisputed leader of the INDIA bloc. Ahead of three crucial elections, allies are now questioning the record of a Congress that lost its negotiating muscle.