Islamist Rabble-Rousing Over Concerns Of Senior Leader: What Former Haryana MLA's Resignation From Congress Tells About Party's Choices

Former Rewari MLA Captain Ajay Singh Yadav resigned from the Congress party on Thursday (17 October), days after his party failed to secure a majority in the recently held Haryana assembly elections.

Notably, five-time MLA Yadav has been voicing his discontent with the workings of the party since the results day itself (8 October).

Yadav was the Chairman of the Congress party's Other Backward Classes (OBC) front but alleged that this post was "a jhujhuna (gimmick), an eyewash" and OBC leaders were not mainstreamed.

On Congress' poor performance in southern Haryana, where the party could win only six of 23 seats, he alleged, "Ignoring four districts of Gurgaon, Mehandragarh, Rewari and Faridabad has cost the party."

He also blamed Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and factionalism for the loss and said, "Tussle in Haryana Congress for becoming CM (Chief Minister) before getting the people’s mandate was a big blunder."

But the highlight of his criticisms was the demand for an apology from Ferozepur Jhirka MLA Mamman Khan, who won the election with the highest victory margin, on the back of allegedly provocative statements.

Notably, Khan is an accused in the Nuh violence of 2023. Charges were also pressed against him officially by Nuh Superintendent of Police (SP), Narendra Bijarnia for his alleged role in provoking violence in Nuh on 31 July 2023.

Bijarnia stated that the investigations have provided substantial evidence against Khan for his role in inciting the violence. It has been revealed that Khan was present at the scene before the violence erupted.

"Mamman Khan, MLA Ferozepur Jhirka should apologise for his offensive and communal statement made during the election campaign for a particular community," Yadav had posted on X.

The statement Yadav is referring to, that went viral on social media, is the one where Khan can be heard saying: "Some people will have to leave Mewat." The Election Commission had also issued notice to Khan regarding this.

It should be mentioned that Mewat is a Muslim-dominated region in southern Haryana, where Yadavs also form a significant portion of the population and that's why the region is also called Ahirwal region.

The polarising statement by Khan, suggesting Hindu communities will have to leave Muslim-dominated region, might have helped Congress in Muslim-populated seats but harmed it in other seats of the region.

Even Yadav's son, Chiranjeev Rao, who won the election from Rewari in 2019, lost this time. In the Ahirwal belt, the Congress could win only one seat. This would have frustrated Yadav.

However, the Congress neither took action against Khan when he was accused of Nuh violence—instead, they rewarded him with a ticket—and nor for his provocative statement during the election campaign.

On the other hand, Yadav, a longstanding member of the party whose father, Abhey Singh, served as a Congress MLA from Rewari in the 1970s, has now been forced to leave the party, partly due to the lack of action against Khan.

"This decision of resigning was really hard decision with whom my family had 70 years of association as my father late Rao Abhey Singh became MLA in 1952 and thereafter I continued with family tradition," (sic) Yadav said.

Yadav alleged that the party treated him 'shabbily' after Sonia Gandhi left the post of Congress president and he will give details on harassment and embarrassment meted out to him in the last two years by certain leaders.

He is waiting for Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to accept his resignation and after that, he will decide his future course of action and give details of hurdles created by certain leaders to sideline him.

While the case is of Haryana, it brings to light the fact that how fragile the so-called 'Muslim-Yadav' unity is. Incidentally, this is the combination which Congress ally in Uttar Pradesh (UP) Samajwadi Party (SP), relies on for its electoral success. While evidently the conditions of the political field of play are different in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the fragility of a 'Muslim-Yadav' alliance is not to be ignored.

On it part, the Congress' stance appears to be clearer after the Ajay Singh Yadav dispute: when needed, the Congress will most likely choose the minority community over the Yadav voters.