AICC in-charge looking, why Surjewala, Hooda exchange betrays Congress crisis

The Haryana Congress’s simmering leadership battle spilled into the open during the party’s general body meeting in Chandigarh on July 8, when an apparently light-hearted exchange between Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala quickly assumed political significance.

The meeting, chaired by the All India Congress Committee (AICC)’s newly appointed Haryana in-charge Sanjay Dutt, took an unexpected turn during this welcome programme for Dutt. Pointing towards Surjewala, Hooda remarked, “Tu mera saath de, fir dekh dhamaka (Stand with me, and then you’ll see the impact)”.

Surjewala immediately took the microphone from Haryana Congress president Rao Narender Singh and replied, “Mujhe aapka saath dete hue 20 saal ho gaye. Ab aapki baari hai mera saath dene ki (I have backed you for the last 20 years. Now, it is your turn to support me).”

Within the state Congress circles, Surjewala’s response was widely interpreted as his bid to signal his own ambitions for a larger role in Haryana politics. While none of the senior state party leaders was willing to comment on it on record, some of them called it a “witty, jovial and amiable banter shared among party colleagues”.

“Not only Randeep, but everybody had been supporting Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Still, if the result isn’t coming, there has to be some change,” said one party leader.

“Randeep Surjewala only stated the facts about the Congress performance over the years,” another party leader added.

This point was reinforced by Surjewala’s subsequent speech. Delivering what many viewed as a direct critique of the Congress’s electoral record in Haryana under Hooda’s leadership over the years, Surjewala reminded party workers that after returning to power in 2005, the Congress had not secured another Assembly majority on its own.

“Since Haryana’s inception in 1966, the Congress has secured an absolute majority on its own only three times – in 1972, 1991 and 2005. I am not blaming anybody in particular, but every party leader and worker must first accept this bitter truth that in the last 56 years, we have managed to win on our own only thrice,” Surjewala said.

He added, “Although we did form the government, sometimes with the support of MLAs who joined us from other parties, on our own we formed the government only three times,” referring to the 2009 election, when the Congress fell short of a majority and later formed the government after five Haryana Janhit Congress MLAs merged with the party.

Surjewala, who is also an AICC general secretary, rejected Hooda’s son and Rohtak MP Deepender’s argument that the Congress had improved its performance in the 2024 Assembly elections.

“I have immense respect for my younger brother Deepender, but the fact is that despite securing one of our best vote shares in recent years, we were still restricted to 37 seats – well short of the 46 needed for a majority in the 90-member Assembly. We cannot turn our faces away from this bitter reality,” he said.

He then cautioned Sanjay Dutt, saying, “Sanjay ji, agar aap bhi muh morenge, toh peeche kai prabhari nakamyaab ho ke chale gaye (If you also choose to look the other way, you too will join the long list of in-charges who failed and eventually left).”

Surjewala’s remarks come against the backdrop of the Congress’s narrow defeat in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections, after which sections of the party renewed demands for a leadership change. While Hooda remained the party’s chief ministerial face during the campaign, the Congress high command took nearly a year to formally appoint him as the LoP.

The Gandhi family has also sent mixed political signals. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi attended the Hooda family’s annual lunch earlier this year, reinforcing Hooda’s influence. However, Rahul also joined former MP Brijendra Singh’s state-wide Sadbhav Yatra in 2025 – a move seen as encouraging leaders outside the Hooda camp which had skipped this yatra for “not being an official party programme”.

Hooda has dominated Haryana Congress politics for nearly three decades, serving as the two-term CM, state party president, and LoP.

Surjewala, once regarded as Hooda’s trusted lieutenant and state Cabinet colleague, later emerged as part of the anti-Hooda “SRK” grouping alongside Lok Sabha MP Kumari Selja and ex-Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Choudhry. After Choudhry switched to the BJP, Surjewala and his son, Kaithal MLA Aditya Surjewala, openly supported Brijendra Singh’s Sadbhav Yatra.

Though Surjewala himself suffered electoral defeats in the 2019 Jind Assembly bypoll and later from Kaithal before entering the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan in 2022, his July 8 intervention offered the clearest public indication yet that the debate over the Congress’s leadership in Haryana has spilled into the open.