Year-long overhaul boosts Haryana Congress, but challenges persist

GURUGRAM: When Indian Youth Congress and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) workers blocked Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s convoy and showed him black flags over Gurugram University’s infrastructure last month, the friction signalled a newly coordinated grassroots mobilisation reflecting the results of the party’s year-long Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan campaign.

However, this newfound ground momentum remains shadowed by questions being raised on appointments made on recommendations and not entirely on merit, caste equations not being taken care of, and deficit in female representation at the district level.

The August 21 arrest of eight workers and the subsequent August 25 protest led by Haryana Pradesh Congress Commitee president Rao Narender Singh directly stem from an intensive, year-long overhaul to rebuild the Haryana Congress’s grassroots organisation — a structure that had remained completely dysfunctional from the district down to the booth level for more than a decade.

The party launched the Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan a year ago to correct its course after three consecutive Assembly defeats and years of internal factionalism. To sustain this newfound momentum, the party overhauled its structure by appointing district and block presidents and forming executive committees at both levels.

Regular dialogue, feedback

The organisational overhaul is being accompanied by an attempt to bring greater accountability into the party. The leadership is seeking regular dialogue between senior leaders and grassroots workers, periodic evaluation of office-bearers’ performance and a formal system of monitoring.

“Soon after Sanjay Dutt took over as State In-charge in June, a meeting of all senior leaders from across the State — MPs, MLAs and district presidents — was called. It was followed by interaction with district executive members and active workers in each Assembly to seek their feedback under the ‘Samvad’ programme,” Haryana Congress chief told The Hindu.

The next phase is to establish mandals, each covering around 20 booths, followed by village and booth committees. The party has also revived disciplinary mechanism, constituting a disciplinary committee, and considering separate urban district presidents for Panchkula and Faridabad, besides one for the newly created Hansi district.

The outreach has covered 78 of Haryana’s 90 Assembly constituencies, he said. The party began holding block conferences in September, with Mr. Singh himself having attended five so far and Mr. Dutt four.

The party has simultaneously introduced a performance-based grading system. The heads of Sirsa, Hisar (Urban) and Faridabad are under scrutiny over their performance in the grading exercise, based on monthly reports submitted to the All-India Congress Committee. “Appointment is no longer enough. Everyone is graded on the basis of their work,” Mr. Singh said, adding with a quip that even the State in-charge’s performance is reviewed.

A fixed reporting cycle has also been introduced. Block meetings are held between the first and fifth of every month, district meetings between the fifth and tenth, followed by a State-level meeting between the 10th and 15th, generally attended by the State In-charge and other office-bearers.

Mood Upbeat

The effort has begun to change the mood among the rank and file, according to party workers.

“The mood is upbeat. It is after a gap of several years that the party’s State leadership has turned towards the grassroots workers to interact with them and seek their feedback,” said Raju Maan, national convener of the All India Kisan Congress.

Former Hisar MP Brijendra Singh said the Congress organisation was finally taking shape after 12 years, with party activities now more visible across the State and districts and the Youth Congress and NSUI being activated. However, he said the focus should go beyond creating the structure to making district president offices functional and authoritative, while ensuring coordination between district presidents and elected representatives.

Challenges persist

“The Congress’s central challenge in Haryana was to ensure that it was not seen as a party representing a particular caste. While the new organisational appointments had attempted to address the issue, more needs to be done,” said Lal Bahadur Khowal, chairman of the Haryana Congress Legal Department and a Pradesh Congress Committee delegate. He said the State leadership needed to project a united front.

“The BJP tried to polarise the previous Assembly election on the Jat and non-Jat lines and the Congress played along, causing its defeat in an otherwise winnable battle,” Mr. Khowal said.

Mr. Maan also cautioned that appointments are based on recommendations of senior leaders rather than merit, inadequate attention to social engineering at the grassroots and financial constraints still remained challenges.

For instance, Charkhi Dadri, where all four block presidents are Jats and are allegedly aligned with different senior leaders. “If appointments are made based on merit and not recommendations of senior leaders, loyalty lies with the party and not an individual leader. It ensures better coordination and strengthens the party,” he said.

The imbalance in women’s representation is another concern. Of the 33 district presidents, only one is a woman — a gap that assumes greater significance as women have emerged as an increasingly important electoral constituency being courted by all political parties.

Published – September 09, 2026 10:43 pm IST