NEW DELHI: It’s a battle for survival for the Congress in Delhi. The party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years on the trot from 1998, has been on a downward spiral in the national capital since 2013. The grand-old party has been without a representative in the Delhi assembly since 2015 and has also drawn a blank in the last two Lok Sabha elections. What’s worse – the party’s vote share has also plummeted to alarming lows.
The Congress, which has been relegated to the fringes of Delhi politics in the last 10 years, faces an uphill task to prevent the dubious distinction of scoring a hat trick of zeroes in assembly elections. That perhaps is the first priority of the Delhi Congress leaders, who have gone all out against Arvind Kejriwal‘s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP.
The grand-old-party is desperate for a turnaround. But the fact remains that it has been literally decimated in Delhi ceding its political space first to AAP and then to the BJP.
Factor these alarming statistics:
In 2020 assembly elections, Congress candidates lost their deposits in 63 of the 66 seats the party contested.In 2015 assembly elections, 62 out of 70 Congress candidates lost their deposits.48 Congress candidates polled less than 5% of votes in 2020.The Congress vote share in Delhi has dipped from a high of 48% in 2003 to 4.3% in 2020.In Lok Sabha elections, Congress has been relegated to third position in terms of vote share with AAP at the second spot after BJP.
The Congress is contesting the 2025 elections solo – just as it did in 2020 and 2015. This after AAP, which is a partner of the Congress under the opposition’s INDIA banner, refused an alliance with the grand-old party. The two parties had contested the 2025 Lok Sabha elections in alliance. However, while the AAP gained from the tie-up, Congress was pushed to the number 3 spot in terms of vote share. The alliance failed to prevent another clean sweep by the BJP which won all the 7 Lok Sabha seats for the second time in a row.
So, can the Congress script the beginning of its revival in the 2025 elections? Its state leaders are confident of a turnaround and claim that there is ground support for the party. The Congress has also matched both the AAP and the BJP in the freebies race promising to launch several welfare schemes if voted to power. However, despite these efforts, the Congress seems to be rudderless on the ground.
Unlike the BJP and AAP, whose top leaders are crisscrossing the national capital, the Congress’s Delhi campaign is yet to gather momentum. Just seven days of campaigning is left and we are yet to see party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaign in Delhi till now. Only Rahul Gandhi has addressed some rallies till now.
In his rallies, Rahul has unleashed a blistering attack on both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying there is no difference between the two leaders and they do not want backwards, Dalits, tribals and minorities to get their due share.
Rahul has also trained his guns on Kejriwal and said that the AAP convener was following “Modi’s strategy of propaganda and false promises.” The Congress leader targeted the AAP chief over liquor scam and said “Arvind Kejriwal promised to do politics differently but gave Delhi biggest liquor scam. He came in small car, but lived in ‘Sheesh Mahal’,” Rahul said at a rally.
Read more: Rahul Gandhi takes jab at Arvind Kejriwal in rally ahead of Delhi polls
Rahul’s attacks have evoked strong reactions from AAP, which has accused the Congress of colluding with the BJP to defeat Kejriwal. This even as AAP leaders claim that the Congress will not be able to dent its prospects. The open spat between the two allies-turned-rivals has already strained the equations of the opposition alliance. Most of the INDIA partners have backed Kejriwal in this fight, but the Congress seems to be unfazed.
Several analysts claim that even a marginal improvement in Congress’s performance especially vote share could make the results interesting as the party may end up helping either the BJP or the AAP. But for even that to happen, the Congress needs to put its house in order. For a party that is way behind its rivals, the much-needed intensity on the ground seems to be missing. This raises an obvious question – has the Congress already conceded defeat?