Ever in service of the Congress party, India Today ‘journalist’ Preeti Choudhry has been furiously posting tweets ever since her prediction of the Haryana assembly elections went spectacularly wrong, with Congress being dealt with a demoralising defeat as the BJP returned to power for the third time in a row.
After what came as a surprise to many, especially the Congress party, whose leaders appear completely flummoxed with the results in Haryana, Choudhry has been passionately involved in dissecting the cause of Congress’ failure.
In this pursuit, Choudhry, who is referred to by many on X as ‘Lady Rajdeep’ for her tendency to go soft on the Congress party and often acting as the unofficial spokesperson of the party, posted an infographic that blamed ‘vote-cutters’ responsible for the Congress party’s debacle in the Haryana state elections.
— Preeti Choudhry (@PreetiChoudhry) October 9, 2024
The infographic talked about 14 seats in Haryana where Congress lost to the BJP by a margin less than that secured by the 2nd runner-up. These constituencies included Sohna, Narwana, Uchan Kalan, Assandh, Kalka, Badhra, Mahendragarh, Safidon, Yamunanagar, Rai, Barwala, Samalkha, Dadri, and Tosham.
Essentially, it claimed that Congress would not have lost the elections if there had been no other candidates contesting. This argument not only contradicts the fundamental principles of multi-party democracy but is also deeply flawed, as it presumes that the votes for the second-place candidates in each constituency would have entirely shifted to Congress.
A multi-party democracy is a system in which multiple political parties can contest and attain power. This setup allows various parties to reflect a wide range of perspectives and interests, resulting in a more inclusive representation of the population. Elections are held regularly, granting all eligible citizens the right to vote. Similarly, anyone and everyone can contest polls and stand a chance to represent the interests of their constituencies in the state assembly.
But for Preeti, contesting elections from a constituency where a Congress candidate is in a close fight against a BJP candidate means the 2nd runner-up is a ‘vote-cutter’ who has diminished the chances of the Congress representative from being elected to power. Is she angling for a Presidential system in constituencies where there is a tough contest between a Congress candidate and a rival politician? Is it a way to absolve Congress of the uninspiring campaign it ran ahead of the elections? Surely, dividing Hindu society with caste rhetorics has a shelf life and people will eventually see through the propaganda. And lastly, does the ‘vote-cutter’ epithet apply when a Congress candidate scrapes through a narrow victory or is it reserved only for Congress candidates who have lost by a slim margin?
For those who are familiar with Preeti’s ideological moorings and have watched her pass off her opinions as ‘journalistic’ insights, it is not hard to guess what her answers would be to these questions.
In fact, hours after the results were out, Preeti quickly drew up 10 factors that led to Congress’ defeat in polls, that too after gloating about reading the elections right when the initial trends showed over 60 seats to the Congress party.
10 factors why Congress lost – pic.twitter.com/Z7gKOTsvhD
— Preeti Choudhry (@PreetiChoudhry) October 8, 2024
Perhaps, even the Congress party would not have been so quick in analysing their loss as Preeti Choudhry has been in dissecting what went wrong for the party.
Earlier yesterday, Congress and its supporters were dealt a body blow after what they assumed to be a cakewalk turned out to be an arduous task as the BJP registered yet another victory in Haryana, forming government in the state for the third time in a row. Against election analysis of poll pundits and ‘ground reports’ by ‘journalists’, BJP won 48 seats, 2 more than the number of seats required to form government at the centre. Congress ended up with 37 seats in the 90-seat Haryana assembly elections.
