Chandigarh: Despite a humiliating loss to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Haryana assembly elections held last year, – blamed in parts on dominance of Hooda family and resultantly deep internal factionalism – Congress has once again opted for continuity by re-appointing former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), a role he has held thrice in past.However, Congress’s latest organisation rejig – delayed by almost a year after the party’s 2024 poll defeat in October last year – included one notable tactical shift.Rao Narender Singh – a senior OBC leader from the Ahir (Yadav) community – was appointed as the new president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC).In the past two decades, all HPCC chiefs starting with Phool Chand Mullana to Ashok Tanwar, and to Kumari Selja were Dalit leaders.Udai Bhan, the outgoing HPCC president, too belonged to the Scheduled Caste community.Many see the latest elevation of an OBC leader such as Singh to the top organisational post, as the party’s outreach to the important OBC bloc in Haryana, which otherwise powered BJP’s successive poll victories since 2014. Incumbent BJP chief minister Nayab Singh Saini too hails from the OBC community.There is also an element of regional balance behind Congress’s latest organisation strategy. Singh comes from Mahendragarh district in southern Haryana – a region that strongly tilted towards BJP in last one decade and also powered its poll victory during the 2024 state elections.Congress now hopes to reconnect with this politically crucial region, which slipped from its grasp after several of its OBC and jat leaders defected to the BJP in the last one decade.Among them prominent were Rao Inderjit Singh, Kiran Choudhry and her daughter Shruti Choudhry.Hooda still strongAshutosh Kumar, professor of political science at Panjab University, Chandigarh, told The Wire that the latest rejig confirmed the entrenched position of Hooda as the tallest leader in the party in the state. Despite the party’s repeated defeats, he could not be sidelined, he added.According to poll pundits, Hooda’s influence is not just limited to the party’s elected MLAs. He also commands deep respect among the numerically significant Jat community, reinforcing his enduring political clout.After the party’s defeat last year, Hooda’s rival factions including Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala floated alternate names to replace him as CLP leader. Congress high command even sent multiple observers to gauge sentiments of legislators and the ground situation.Eventually, an overwhelming majority of current 37 MLAs backed the 78-year-old leader. As CLP leader, he will head party’s legislators in Haryana Assembly and would also serve as leader of opposition, a post he is holding since 2019.Did Congress find a balanced formula with Rao Narender Singh?Political analyst Kushal Pal told The Wire that while the choice of Singh as an OBC face certainly adds a strategic layer in party’s future poll strategy but overall, he is tipped to have cordial ties with all leaders in the party and is viewed as largely neutral in intra-party disputes.Through his elevation, Congress has largely tried to diversify the power structure in the party in order to manage internal rivalry.How he manages to bridge all factions and help the party overcome its string of humiliating political defeats by reaching out to new voters will be closely watched; for now, however, it appears to be a balanced formula, Pal added.While several leaders of the anti-Hooda camp including Kumar Selja congratulated both Hooda and Singh, not all leaders are on the same page.Shortly after the Congress announcement on Monday, senior leader Capt Ajay Singh Yadav hit out, saying the party needs to introspect on its “falling graph” in the state.“Congress needs to introspect regarding the falling graph of the party in Haryana by its today’s decision. Rahul Gandhi Ji wanted a Haryana Congress President who should have clean, spotless image and youth but the decision is reverse. The party cadre morale is at its lowest level,” Yadav posted on X while tagging senior leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal and BK Hariprasad.Yadav’s post was an indirect reference to the pending corruption case against Singh linked to a land-use scam, registered against him and others in December 2015 on the orders of Haryana Lokayukta.Also, the post has a hint of Singh’s past association with Hooda camp.Singh, a Congress leader for long, was once close to former Congress veteran leader Bhajan Lal.He even joined Bhajan Lal when the latter formed his breakaway faction, Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) in 2007 and later became MLA as an HJC candidate from Narnaul constituency in Mahendergarh district during 2009 assembly elections.But immediately after the election, he along with four other HJC MLAs defected to Congress to support the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led government after the latter fell short of majority. It was during this time that he served as cabinet minister in the Hooda government.Since his last outing with Hooda camp, he carries his own political baggage. Singh has lost three straight Assembly contests (2014, 2019, 2024).According to poll pundits, the coming months will show whether the latest rejig revives the party or keeps it divided as earlier.