Despite Flop Show In Delhi, Congress Takes Comfort In AAP’S Defeat

(MENAFN- IANS) New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) Another abysmal performance by the congress in Delhi has reconfirmed that the party has been rejected completely by the very same voters – Dalits and Muslims - who gave the party 15 years of rule from 1998 to 2013.

Political analysts believe that the Dalits, who ditched the Congress in 2008 for the AAP, have gravitated towards the BJP in this election.

On the other hand, the Muslims who deserted Congress 11 years ago did not completely vote for the AAP but preferred to stay home and not vote at all -- thus pulling down the total voting percentage to 60.54 per cent or about 2.28 percentage points lower than in 2020.

The only positive takeaway for the Congress from the Delhi Assembly election results - in which it failed to win any seat for the third time - is that the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) ouster will blunt Arvind Kejriwal's challenge to Rahul Gandhi's leadership in the INDIA bloc.

The AAP's ouster is also likely to result in a long-term gain for the Congress if it disintegrates or gets weak over the next five years, once again taking the city to a bipolar political set-up with the BJP pitted directly with the Congress.

Despite Delhi Pradesh Congress President Devender Yadav and former MP and New Delhi seat candidate Sandeep Dikshit remaining visible during the run-up to voting, the Congress failed to get the 24 per cent vote share it managed to get in all the 70 Assembly segments during the Lok Sabha elections.

It managed to get just over 6 per cent vote share in this election. In the 2020 Assembly elections, Congress had got 4 per cent vote share as against 10 per cent in 2015 Assembly elections.

The poor show is bound to re-ignite the debate on the party's decision to fight the Assembly elections on its own, without a tie-up with the AAP.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut claimed that if the AAP and Congress had fought the election collectively, the BJP would have been defeated.

In the final analysis, the Congress' presence only benefitted the BJP as the contest turned into a triangular fight in some pockets.

During the counting hours, Chief Minister Atishi's Congress challenger Alka Lamba said it wasn't a question of her party denting the prospects of the AAP.“Those who dented the future of Delhi have been rejected,” she said.

Sandeep Dikshit also lost in the New Delhi seat, but he said only one party has won but two parties might be rejoicing.

Delhi Congress President Devender Yadav had described the tie-up with the AAP in the Lok Sabha election as a mistake.

Despite Yadav's Delhi Nyay Yatra, which covered 650 km across 70 Assembly segments, giving a glimmer of hope to its cadre, the party however badly missed a big and charismatic leader in addition to struggling with a crisis of organisational network.

The cancellation of Rahul Gandhi's two rallies in the city and the suspension of a plan to hold a padyatra in the New Delhi constituency in support of Sandeep Dikshit were also pointed out as some reasons for the party's failure to increase its vote share.

Ever since the poor, Dalits, and Muslim supporters of the Congress switched loyalty to the AAP in 2013, the Congress has shrunk in influence. Its two dozen councillors in MCD are the only elected representatives in the city.

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