Gurugram: Karamveer Bauddh, the Rajya Sabha nominee of the Haryana Congress, will not be a reputation that rings a bell even amongst occasion employees within the state.
Bauddh has by no means contested an election, by no means led a serious agitation, and by no means held any vital organisational submit within the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee. But, it’s Bauddh, and never different aspirants like former state Congress president Udai Bhan, former MLA Jaiveer Valmiki or former MP Ashok Tanwar who the occasion excessive command has given a ticket for the Rajya Sabha.
Thursday is the final day for submitting nominations. The BJP has already introduced former MP Sanjay Bhatia as its candidate. If no third candidate enters the fray, the 2 seats can be break up between the BJP and Congress with out contest.
A 3rd nomination would push the election to March 16.
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Rahul’s Name
So why Karamveer Bauddh? The quick reply: it was Rahul Gandhi’s selection. Congress leaders ThePrint spoke to stated that the Chief of Opposition within the Lok Sabha personally beneficial Bauddh’s identify, and that sealed the choice.
Senior occasion leaders in Haryana, lots of whom had been lobbying exhausting for themselves or their candidates, discovered themselves with little possibility however to fall in line. Celebration leaders instructed ThePrint that the Congress had already determined internally that the ticket would go to a candidate from the Scheduled Caste neighborhood.
4 names have been doing the rounds—Bauddh, former state chief Udai Bhan, former MLA Jaiveer Valmiki, and former MP Ashok Tanwar. In the long run, it was Bauddh.
All About Bauddh
Karamveer Bauddh, who hails from the Meham Meeting phase of Rohtak district, retired in 2023 as a Superintendent from the Haryana Civil Secretariat.
He was concerned within the secretariat’s procurement and caretaking features. His service report, nonetheless, was not with out controversy: at one he was level suspended over allegations associated to a fireplace in a retailer beneath his cost.
After retirement, Bauddh formally joined the Congress occasion and has since been listed as considered one of 47 Nationwide Convenors of the Scheduled Castes Division of the All India Congress Committee on the AICC web site.
Three causes behind the selection
Celebration insiders level to a few components that made Bauddh a suitable selection, although shocking. First, his SC background. With Congress dedicated to fielding a Dalit candidate, Bauddh matches the invoice.
Second, his lack of factional baggage. Not like the opposite names in rivalry, Bauddh will not be related to any group or camp inside Haryana Congress—not the Hooda camp, not the Selja camp, not some other. In a state unit perpetually torn by inside rivalries, this neutrality was apparently seen as a advantage moderately than a weak spot. He was seen as a balanced, broadly acceptable face.
Celebration insiders say that the third, and which might be crucial one, seems to be his affiliation with the IPS Y Puran Kumar suicide case, which had shaken Haryana’s political and administrative institution in October 2025.
The Y Puran Kumar connection
A 2001 batch IPS officer from the Scheduled Caste neighborhood serving in Haryana, Y Puran Kumar is alleged to have dedicated suicide by gunshot at his Chandigarh residence on October 7, 2025.
The officer’s spouse, Amneet P. Kumar, herself an IAS officer of 2001 batch had alleged in a grievance given to the Chandigarh Police that her husband had been pushed to take this excessive step resulting from persistent harassment by senior officers, naming then DGP Shatrujeet Kapur after which Rohtak SP Narinder Bijarniya amongst others. The officer’s last word, too, had held the 2 accountable.
The case grew to become a flashpoint, with political leaders against the BJP rallying behind the IPS officer’s household, who had refused to permit a autopsy examination and cremation for over per week.
Karamveer Bauddh was amongst those that publicly led the agitation demanding justice for Puran Kumar.
Rahul Gandhi visited the officer’s household in Chandigarh, a transfer that put strain on the then BJP authorities and ultimately compelled it to yield to the household’s calls for for motion in opposition to the named officers.
Bauddh’s function in that agitation, and his affiliation with Rahul Gandhi at a second when Gandhi personally engaged with the problem, seems to have left a beneficial impression on the high stage of the occasion.
One other Congress chief instructed The Print that he was additionally lively throughout Deepender Singh Hooda’s Lok Sabha marketing campaign from Rohtak in Could 2024 and took part in occasion programmes in the course of the October 2024 Haryana meeting elections, the place he had himself been a contender for the ticket from Mullana in Ambala district. That seat ultimately went to Pooja Chaudhry, spouse of Ambala MP Varun Chaudhry.
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Celebration rank and file not amused
Behind the scenes, Haryana Congress leaders are struggling to cover their dismay. A senior Congress chief and sitting MLA, who spoke to ThePrint on situation of anonymity, didn’t mince phrases: “We have been shocked. Sure, he’s within the AICC’s SC Division, and sure, he was lively within the 2024 elections. Even earlier than his retirement, as a frontrunner of SC workers, he used to ask Congress leaders to Ambedkar Jayanti features. However there have been much more skilled and deserving candidates—Udai Bhan alone has given many years to this occasion and misplaced from Hathin in 2024. It’s exhausting to clarify this option to employees on the bottom.”
One other senior chief admitted the frustration was actual and widespread, however stated there was little the state management may do. “The excessive command has determined. We’ll comply with,” he stated.
Requested whether or not BJP’s potential assist to an unbiased, if one have been to contest, may upset the arithmetic, the Congress MLA stated the occasion MLAs would abide by the excessive command’s course regardless.
The optics
Jyoti Mishra, an assistant professor of political science at Amity College, Mohali, and a former researcher on the Centre for Research on Creating Societies (CSDS), instructed ThePrint that for the Congress, the selection carries an implicit political message.
“The occasion is doubling down on its Dalit outreach and its constitutional narrative, significantly the ‘Samvidhan Bachao’ marketing campaign through which Bauddh has been an lively participant. It additionally displays Rahul Gandhi’s tendency to succeed in past the established political class when making key selections,” Mishra stated.
Whether or not Karamveer Bauddh can develop into the function of a Rajya Sabha MP, with no prior electoral or legislative expertise, stays to be seen. For now, his surprised colleagues in Haryana Congress are studying to reside with a selection they didn’t see coming.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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