Lok Sabha polls just beginning, real fight lies ahead: Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda to Congress workers

GURGAON: Lok Sabha election results were "just the beginning" and the "real fight lies ahead", former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda said at a meeting with Congress workers in Karnal on Sunday.
Sunday's gathering in the stronghold of former CM and Karnal MP Manohar Lal Khattar is the first in a series of meetings planned by Congress to jumpstart its campaign for the coming assembly elections in Haryana.
The party, which clinched victory in five of the ten Lok Sabha seats in Haryana this year, is hoping to make headway in the state elections, likely to be held in October this year. Apart from Hooda, Rohtak MP and his son Deepender Hooda, and state party president Udaybhan were at the meeting.
Hooda thanked party workers for working day and night for parliamentary elections and said the results were good.
"We should neither stop nor bow down for the next three months. We should just keep moving forward till the goal is achieved," he said.
The party is planning similar meetings with functionaries in Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Yamunanagar, Panchkula, Sonipat, Panipat, Jind, Ambala, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Hisar and Rohtak, among other districts.
Sources said the idea is to improve the party's performance into the GT Road belt, which includes 30 of Haryana's 90 assembly seats. In the Lok Sabha election, Congress lost both seats in this belt - Karnal and Kurukshetra.
The region is a stronghold for former CM Khattar, who was elected an MP from Karnal in this election. Apart from Punjabi voters who typically support Khattar, general category voters in this region usually opts for BJP.
Congress's state unit president Udaybhan, while addressing workers on Sunday, said efforts are on to organise and strengthen the party's election preparations.
"The primary goal of this conference is to prepare the workers for the upcoming assembly elections. They will be encouraged to engage with people, understand their problems and promise solutions through people friendly policies," he said.
Describing his party's Lok Sabha performance as excellent, he said BJP's count in assembly segments came down from 79 in 2019 general elections to 44 this time. And Congress's leads increased from 10 to 46.