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The Congress, by its own admission, doesn’t seem confident of winning seats but hopes to increase its vote percentage in Delhi, where it has zero MPs and MLAs
The Congress has been weakened or wiped out in many states like West Bengal, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh when it allowed other players or regional parties to grow at its cost. (File pic/AFP)
The Congress is gearing up for the big fight in Delhi. A tad late, many would argue, but with Arvind Kejriwal not letting go of his attacks on the Congress, the grand old party has made up its mind to take them on.
Sources say that at a meeting, Rahul Gandhi argued that there was no point in pushing coalition dharma if it came at the cost of the Congress’s “astitva” (existence). The Congress alone was capable of taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party at the national level, and if it weakens and gives up on fights, then its stand weakens. Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress cannot be the alternative to the BJP or protect the Constitution if it loses its presence in states.
The Congress has been weakened or wiped out in many states like West Bengal, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh when it allowed other players or regional parties to grow at its cost. For example, in Delhi and Punjab, it’s the Aam Aadmi Party that has grown at the cost of the Congress. Their vote bank is the same, and many in the party, like Ajay Maken, feel that Congress should not have gone soft on Kejriwal even though he was part of the INDIA bloc.
Many gave feedback that despite a public snubbing of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury by Mallikarjun Kharge during the Bengal Lok Sabha polls to assuage Mamata Banerjee, she has not been soft on the Congress. In fact, the Trinamool Congress has led this call to make Mamata the face of the India bloc, citing the Congress’s poor poll performance as the reason why Congress cannot be the force to take on the Modi factor.
This, along with the fact that many allies like the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, and TMC supported AAP in Delhi over the Congress, has made the Gandhis feel that other bloc members have not followed the coalition dharma, so why should the Congress alone be expected to follow suit?
So, to adhere to its plan to make its presence felt in Delhi, a couple of steps will be taken. Like Ajay Maken, who was stopped from doing a tell-all exposé on Kejriwal earlier, will now do one. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will hit the streets. Rahul is expected to hold some meetings in Muslim-dominated areas and places where Dalits and OBCs are an important vote bank.
Priyanka too is expected to campaign to capture women’s votes.
But will the belated fight by the Congress help the BJP or hurt Kejriwal? The Congress, by its own admission, doesn’t seem confident of winning seats but hopes to increase its vote percentage in Delhi, where it has zero MPs and MLAs. For the Congress, this would be a start. As a senior Congress leader told News18, “Even if the BJP wins this time, next time we can. But more than this, defeat of AAP would mean Delhi will have only two players—Congress and BJP—and we will be back in the game.”
The Congress also hopes now that the loss of AAP in Delhi will make it easy for the party in Punjab as well. Hence the need to make the “dangal” for Delhi a three-cornered fight.
