'Arrogant, Overconfident...': Congress Takes Fire From INDI Alliance After Haryana Poll Debacle

New Delhi: As Congress is yet to absorb its shocking defeat in the Haryana elections, its coalition partners have already started taking digs at the performance of Mallikarjun Kharge’s party and urged them to exercise caution over the the attitude displayed by the Lok Sabha’s principal opposition after General elections. 

Shiv Sena Slams Congress , Calls Them ‘Overconfident’

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said the Congress only relies on its partners where it seems they are weak and need local support. 

"Wherever the Congress is weak, it takes help from the regional parties. But where it thinks it is strong, the Congress attaches no importance to the regional parties," Raut said.

Raut further asserted that Congress could only save its face in Jammu and Kashmir as National Conference rallied the alliance in their favour. 

"We could win in Jammu and Kashmir because the INDIA bloc was fighting there under the leadership of Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah. In Haryana , the INDIA bloc did not fight together because the Congress thought they could win on their own. Hooda ji is our friend, he thought he could win on his own," he said.

Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also pointed out that it was a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress , and that the Congress needs to introspect over its loss.

"The Congress has to introspect. There was a direct contest with the BJP . Where did they all fall short? I am sure they will analyse that.

TMC says Congress Neglected Regional Parties 

A senior leader of the TMC who did not want to be named spoke on similar lines and was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI, “ Congress lost again when it was a straight fight with the BJP and the regional parties do much better in defeating the BJP .” 

The TMC is a member of the INDIA bloc but contested the Lok Sabha elections independently in West Bengal after failing to reach an agreement with the Congress , which formed an alliance with the Left parties.

TMC MP Saket Gokhale also took a subtle dig at Congress . 

In a post on X, Gokhale said, “This attitude leads to electoral losses -- if we feel we're winning, we will not accommodate any regional party... But in states where we're down, regional parties must accommodate us."

"Arrogance, entitlement, and looking down on regional parties is a recipe for disaster," he said.

Even, National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah said that Congress will have to introspect deeply to find reasons for its defeat in Haryana . 

 "The Congress will have to go deep into it and find the reasons for its defeat," Abdullah said.

AAP, was keen on having an electoral alliance in Haryana with the Congress but was turned down the offer.

AAP Capable Of Overcoming ‘Overconfident’ Congress

"In Delhi, AAP will contest alone. We are capable of fighting the overconfident Congress and arrogant BJP alone," AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said.

"The Congress has had zero seats in the Delhi assembly for the past 10 years, yet AAP gave Congress three seats in the Lok Sabha polls; still they did not feel necessary to take allies along in Haryana ," she added. 

On Tuesday, AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal had said the biggest lesson from the recent round of elections was one should not be "overconfident".

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha also shared a cryptic message on X where he took a subtle dig at Congress for ignoring them in Haryana polls. 

The CPI(M) said the results in both Haryana and J&K are a lesson for the secular forces rallying against the BJP .

"The contrasting results thrown up by Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana state elections, the resounding success in Jammu & Kashmir and the unexpected setback in the latter provide valuable lessons for secular forces in the struggle against BJP in the days to come," the CPI(M) said.

"In Haryana , the BJP managed to secure a majority of seats in a close fight with the Congress , but with a narrow margin of 0.6 per cent vote share over Congress . Its success is marked by micro-caste mobilization and insidious communal propaganda. The Congress will have to introspect as to the other factors responsible for this verdict," they said.

CPI general secretary D Raja said the Congress should do serious introspection over the poll results in Haryana and take along all INDIA bloc partners in the upcoming polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand .

"The Congress party will have to do serious introspection. It has to do some self-critical assessment of its own strategy and tactics," he said.

"The INDIA bloc parties should work with mutual trust in each other, and mutual accommodation in time of seat sharing. This did not happen in Haryana ," he said. 

The BJP is set to form its third consecutive government in Haryana , having secured 48 seats in the 90-member assembly, according to the results announced on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Congress won 37 seats.