Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : After another debacle in Delhi elections, Congress state leader Sharmistha Mukherjee on Wednesday questioned the party’s strategy of hailing AAP’s win and asked if the Congress had outsourced the task of defeating the BJP.
Mukherjee, who is the daughter of former president Pranab Mukherjee, tweeted asking whether Congress state units should shut shop if the party had decided to outsource the task of taking down BJP to other parties.
Replying to Congress veteran P Chidambaram’s tweet hailing AAP, Mukherjee asked on Twitter, “With due respect sir, just want to know- has @INCIndia outsourced the task of defeating BJP to state parties? If not, then why r we gloating over AAP victory rather than being concerned abt our drubbing? And if ‘yes’, then we (PCCs) might as well close shop!”
Chidambaram on Tuesday welcomed Arvind Kejriwal’s win and also said Delhi was an example for other states to follow.
Chidambaram said: “AAP won, bluff and bluster lost. The people of Delhi, who are from all parts of India, have defeated the polarising, divisive and dangerous agenda of the BJP. I salute the people of Delhi who have set an example to other states that will hold their elections in 2021 and 2022.”
63 Congress candidates lose deposit; Delhi chief Subhash Chopra offers to resign over election debacle
Results for assembly polls declared on Tuesday showed that the Congress party drew a blank, repeating its 2015 performance. The party got less than 5 per cent votes, and 63 of its candidates losing their deposits.
The Congress contested the polls this time in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, fighting on 66 seats and leaving four for its ally. However, only three of its candidates—Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar—could save their deposits.
The security deposit of a candidate is forfeited if he/she fails to secure one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency.
Most Congress candidates got less than five per cent of the total votes polled in their respective constituencies.
Delhi Congress chief Shubhash Chopra’s daughter Shivani Chopra, who was the party candidate from Kalkaji, also could not save her deposit.
Former Delhi Assembly speaker Yoganand Shastri’s daughter, Priyanka Singh, also forfeited her deposit. The vice-president of Delhi Mahila Congress got only 3.6 per cent votes.
The party’s campaign committee chairman and former cricketer Kirti Azad’s wife, Poonam Azad, lost badly and stood fourth, polling only 2,604 (2.23 per cent) votes.
Devender Yadav, the party’s candidate from the Badli seat, polled 19.66 per cent votes, while Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar got 19.14 per cent.
The Congress’ Kasturba Nagar candidate, Abhishek Dutt, got 21.42 per cent votes and stood a distant third.
The Congress was expected to do good in the minority-dominated seats due to its vehement criticism of the government over the amended citizenship law and police highhandedness at Jamia Millia. However, its candidates lost deposits in all such constituencies too.
Congress candidate from Ballimaran and former Delhi minister Haroon Yusuf could garner a paltry 4.73 per cent votes.
Alka Lamba, the outgoing MLA who switched to the Congress last year, could garner only 5.03 per cent votes, while the youngest candidate this election and former DUSU president, Rocky Tuseed, polled 3.8 per cent votes.
With the Congress receiving 22.46 per cent votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, pushing the Aam Aadmi Party to the third spot, many hoped it would improve its performance in the Assembly elections.
However, the party’s vote percentage dropped from 9.7 per cent in 2015 to 4.2 per cent this time. In the 2013 Assembly elections, it had polled 24.55 per cent votes.
Sheila Dikshit’s son, Sandeep Dikshit, said the results did not surprise him and internal politics kept the party from doing good.
Delhi Mahila Congress chief and party spokesperson Sharmishtha Mukherjee said in a tweet, “We are again decimated in Delhi. Enough of introspection, time for action now. Inordinate delay in decision making at the top, lack of strategy and unity at state level, demotivated workers, no grassroots connect-all are factors. Being part of the system, I too take my share of responsibility.”
Her colleague Jaiveer Shergill suggested that the Congress should avoid things like justifying defeat, finding happiness in the BJP’s defeat and telling itself that wins and losses are cyclic in elections.
A few Congress leaders also acknowledged that the party did not go full throttle into campaigning.
Senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned for party candidates just two-three days ahead of the elections.
The party candidates lost deposits in all the seats where the Gandhis had addressed rallies— Jangpura, Sangam Vihar, Chandni Chowk and Kondli.
