FairPoint: Delhi dilemma for Congress - how far to push against AAP!

New Delhi, Jan 12 As the BJP and AAP's aggressive campaigning for the February 5 Delhi Assembly election takes centre stage, the Congress suddenly appears to have run out of steam, rather it has held back its horses. This is intriguing given the fact that this election presents the right opportunity for the grand old party to bounce back in the national capital.

The Congress has been almost wiped out in Delhi as it has failed to win any seat in the last two Assembly polls and the Lok Sabha elections from Delhi.

However, this time there is significant scope for the Congress party as AAP has been engulfed in corruption cases, and its top leadership is on bail after being arrested on various charges. AAP's stint of five years since 2020 has been riddled with controversies and charges of no development. The national capital has witnessed significant political drama and theatrics, leaving people confused about AAP's goals, credibility, and practicality. It is here where the Congress party could have pushed itself into AAP's territories and reclaim its lost space. The BJP, in any case for both of them, is the enemy.

Even though the Congress has finally listed Rahul Gandhi to begin its campaign with a rally in Seelampur to be followed by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, the initial aggression shown by the Delhi leaders has gone missing. The steam seems to have been taken out after Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party raised a stick.

It all started when veteran leader Ajay Maken launched a frontal attack on Kejriwal while releasing a White Paper on the "black deeds" of both the AAP government and the BJP-led Central government. He declared plans to reveal alleged 'anti-national' links between the AAP chief and certain outfits and even described Kejriwal as 'Farziwal'. The press conference was scheduled for a later date. However, Maken's press conference was postponed. Congress said it was delayed as they needed to get "some documents". Eventually, the press conference was cancelled and may not happen at all.

The reason is that AAP red-flagged Ajay Maken's statement. AAP put the Congress on notice over Maken's "anti-national" barb at Kejriwal and asked the party to take action against him or else it would approach INDIA bloc allies to "drop" the party from the Opposition bloc. AAP was also miffed by the Congress lodging a complaint against Kejriwal, accusing him of "misleading and deceiving" the people with promises of "non-existent" welfare schemes.

Apparently, the INDIA bloc back channels worked for Kejriwal and played a part in persuading the Congress top guns not to escalate its attacks on Kejriwal. Most of the Congress allies in the opposition bloc soon came out in support of Kejriwal. The rallying for the AAP chief in the bloc perhaps did the work and the Congress leashed its veteran leader Maken.

Maken, who had been at the forefront of the party's Delhi campaign has gone quiet. An unexpected twist occurred when the Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister announced the 'Pyari Didi Yojana', a scheme promising Rs 2,500 in monthly assistance to women in Delhi if the party comes to power. Why should the Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister launch the scheme and not the party's top leadership, including Priyanka Gandhi, is a question that reflects the confusion that is prevailing in the party.

By going weak before the AAP, the Congress party seems to have given up on the fight. It has left the battle to be fought by individual leaders at the local level. It may or may not be able to fetch big numbers in the Assembly. Even if it gets a few, the party will rejoice as it has been scoring zero in the past two Assembly elections.

The fight between the AAP and the Congress party is largely for the minority Muslims and the marginalised, especially the Dalits. Muslim voters constitute almost 12 per cent of Delhi's population and Dalits make up around 17 per cent of the voters. Both were the Congress' trusted vote bank which later shifted to after 2013. Perhaps, this may be the reason that Rahul Gandhi is beginning his campaign from Seelampur which has a sizeable Muslim population.

The Congress may or may not win a seat or seats in the Delhi Assembly, it, however, has exposed its weakness in the INDIA bloc before its allies – both national and regional. Its not-so-proactiveness will go a long way to further dent its image, especially that of Rahul Gandhi. The grand old party has this one chance to strengthen itself in the national capital where it has seen a drastic decline in vote share in comparison to AAP’s meteoric rise. The Congress' vote share in Delhi has declined drastically over the years, dropping from 40.31 per cent in 2008 to 24.55 per cent in 2013, 9.7 per cent in 2015, and a mere 4.26 per cent in 2020.

Since Delhi's Legislative Assembly was established in 1993, the BJP came to power once The Congress ruled Delhi for three consecutive terms from 1998 to 2013. And after that, the AAP has been in power. With anti-incumbency and the plethora of cases against the ruling AAP leaders, the Congress has the perfect pitch laid to rise and better its position in Delhi’s electoral battle.

However, with AAP raising its stick and INDIA bloc allies siding with Kejriwal, the Congress seems to be in dilemma at how far to push its ally AAP. If the dilemma continues, the odds could weigh heavily on Congress.

(Deepika Bhan can be contacted at deepika.b@ians.in)

Source: IANS