Amid INDIA collapse in Delhi, Congress seizes on AAP crisis to fuel its resurgence for Assembly polls

Congress sources said that all three party candidates — J P Agarwal (Chandni Chowk), Udit Raj (North West Delhi ) and Kanhaiya Kumar (North East Delhi) — have blamed the AAP for their losses, telling the All India Congress Committee (AICC)’s two-member fact-finding committee that they allegedly faced a lack of cooperation from the AAP during their campaigns. Such review panels have been constituted by Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge for states where the party’s performance was disastrous or below par in the Lok Sabha polls.

The AICC panel on Delhi comprises senior party leaders P L Punia and Rajani Patil. “The report of the panel has now been submitted to Congress president Kharge,” said Punia.

While both the Congress and the AAP would remain part of the INDIA alliance at the national level, the leaders from both the parties have openly indicated that any seat-sharing pact between them for the Delhi Assembly elections, slated for February 2025, could not be expected.

A Delhi Congress leader said, “All our leaders, including senior leaders, former MLAs, and block and district presidents, have discussed the reasons for our defeat in Delhi. Our candidates have consistently mentioned that the AAP did not cooperate during the elections.”

In the review meeting held by the AICC panel, about 90 Delhi Congress leaders expressed their views, with some leaders doing it even via phones as they were out of town.

One of the three candidates also rapped a section of the Delhi Congress for “remaining inactive”, “behaving like lords” and “spreading lies” against him. He however also targeted the AAP, saying that “AAP leaders were worried that once their supporters voted for Congress, it would be difficult for them to return to AAP in the Assembly elections. Enthusiastic workers on both sides were let down by leaders’ infighting and AAP’s insecurity about facing Assembly elections in nine months.”

The Congress, which failed to open its account in Delhi in the 2015 and the 2020 Assembly polls, has now been looking to stage a comeback in the national capital, sensing an opportunity in the AAP’s troubles whose top brass has been under a cloud of the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. While Chief Minister Kejriwal has been in prison for the past few months in connection with this case, his erstwhile deputy Manish Sisodia has remained incarcerated in the Tihar jail since early last year.

Evidently, the Congress’s decline led to the rise of the AAP in Delhi, with the grand old party’s vote base shifting en masse to the latter just in a few years after its ouster from power in 2013.

Gearing up for the Assembly polls, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) is planning to hold protests against the AAP government in the coming days. “We will raise our voices on matters of public interest and welfare. The flooding during the monsoon season and non-desilting (of drains) in Delhi is an issue that needs to be addressed. We want to act as a worthy Opposition,” said Anil Bharadwaj, chairman of the DPCC’s communication department.

Following the parliamentary polls, the DPCC has hit out at the AAP over various issues, ranging from the water crisis amid protracted heatwave to the city’s crumbling civic infrastructure. Several Delhi Congress leaders have also accused Kejriwal of being “corrupt” besides taking potshots at AAP ministers, including Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj, regularly.

However, at the municipal level, the Congress plans to continue its support for the AAP. In the long-pending election for the Delhi mayor’s post, the Congress’s councillors would support the AAP’s nominee to ensure the BJP candidate’s defeat, a party leader said.

As part of its poll preparations, the DPCC has started holding meetings in every Assembly constituency to galvanise the party workers. “Seven to eight district conventions have already been held, some conventions are still left. We are especially holding meetings in the Assembly segments, which fall under Lok Sabha seats contested by AAP, to consolidate our workers for the upcoming elections. In South Delhi, where AAP contested, we held a worker’s convention in Mehrauli, even as another convention would be held in Badarpur on July 14,” party sources said.

DPCC chief Devender Yadav said, “The functioning of many Block and District Congress Committees were not very satisfactory. The party is taking strong steps to activate and strengthen them, forming a team of 10 workers each at the booth level to strengthen the party position. The format to divide 280 Block Congress Committees on the basis of MCD wards has been prepared, which will be spread over 68 Assembly constituencies, while 4-4 blocks will be formed in New Delhi and Delhi Cantonment seats. Eventually, the DPCC will have 258 block committees.”

Devender, who took the helm of the Delhi Congress following the defection of the former DPCC chief Arvinder Lovely to the BJP on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, held a meeting of the party district presidents and district observers on Wednesday.

At such meetings, the DPCC has been working out strategies to take on both the AAP and the BJP. “We need aggressive campaigns against the BJP and AAP governments and expose their lies, falsehoods, inaction, and incompetence in tackling major issues,” the party said.

During a meeting of the DPCC’s executive committee on June 28, Devender said, “The people are now looking up to the Congress to save Delhi from its present plight of misgovernance and disturbed state of civic affairs, as the AAP government has totally neglected Delhi in the past 10 years.”

The AICC’s general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh recently said, in an interview with PTI, that there does not appear to be much scope for an alliance between the Congress and the AAP for the Assembly polls in Delhi and Haryana.