Criticising Hooda, Selja said the party failed to win all the seats in Haryana due to lack of proper feedback.

AMBALA: Indian National Congress general secretary and Sirsa MP Kumari Selja on Wednesday implicitly criticised Bhupinder Singh Hooda, saying the party could have won all 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana if proper feedback had been given to higher-ups and “self-interest politics” had not been pursued.

In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Indian National Congress won five seats in Haryana.

Selja and former chief minister Hooda are known critics and were not seen on the same stage throughout the election campaign. The Congress Party fielded candidates in nine seats, while the AAP of the Indian Union contested the Kurukshetra seat.

Apart from Selja, the other eight candidates fielded by the Congress were either supporters of Hooda or were considered close to him.

“Considering the mood of the people of Haryana, if proper feedback had been given to the higher-ups, if self-interested politics had not been played and evaluation of candidates had been done on merit, we would have won all 10 seats,” Selja told reporters, without mentioning Hooda by name.

She also spoke to media in Karnal. “As long as the ‘me and mine’ mentality exists, party workers will suffer and the state will suffer,” Selja said.

Listing the shortcomings, Selja said, “You know what the shortcomings were. We did not take the decision (to field a strong candidate against the former chief minister) in time.” In the Karnal Assembly constituency, BJP leader and former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar defeated Divyanshu Budhiraja of the Indian National Congress, while in the Karnal Assembly by-election, incumbent Nayab Saini defeated Tarlochan Singh of the Indian National Congress.

Selja also questioned the feedback given by Haryana in-charge Congress leader Deepak Bavaria: “If our in-charge had given timely suggestions to the higher-ups, we could have won 10 seats.”With the Vidhan Sabha elections due in October, she said efforts should be made to ensure that such shortcomings are not repeated.

“I have repeatedly said, ‘We are only thinking about our own interests.’ If we continue like this, we will betray the people,” she said in response to a question. “Parliamentary elections are coming up and we need to be on our toes.”