Triple-term club

It is difficult to say exactly how different the Congress8217;s performance would have been in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had the party broken with its tradition and managed to project chief ministerial candidates for those two states. But that story stops at the borders of Delhi, with Sheila Dikshit bringing the party home for a third consecutive term. And yet, Dikshit was not announced as a chief ministerial candidate either, though the voter may have had other ideas. Earlier this year, when the BRT mess was unfolding, this newspaper had wondered if Dikshit would manage to extricate herself from such bad publicity approximately six months from the elections. Well, she cut her losses and escaped that trap, demonstrating that good leaders need not be circumscribed and defeated by the foolhardiness of those around them.

Sheila Dikshit is the visible face of Delhi8217;s transformation from an ageing and exploding metropolis to a modern, global city, a calm centre in an urbanisation process that is uneven and chaotic. The botched BRT and troublesome demolition drive were not supposed to have faded from public memory when Delhi went to the polls on November 29. Besides, the Mumbai siege had ended that very morning 8212; an episode which would not have concerned the Delhi CM had it not been for the fact that her party ran the Union home ministry.

What lessons here for the Congress? Will it give up its discredited line that delimitation, which has added to urban constituencies, naturally favours the BJP and that the Congress had better stay focused on rural votes? The Congress8217;s performance in south Delhi, which compared well to its performance in outer Delhi areas, should be anecdotally instructive. It8217;s time the Congress changed its rhetoric and recognised the fact that the country8217;s nerve-centre is moving to its cities; and that that is both cause and effect of an irreversible demographic shift.