Outside the Delhi Congress office on Tuesday. (Express photo)
Even as celebrations and jubilation broke out at Aam Aadmi Party headquarters, with trends showing the Arvind Kejriwal-led party returning to power for a second term, there was palpable gloom within the Congress amid signals that the party may draw a blank again in the Delhi Assembly elections.
Congress floor leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury glossed over the party’s poor performance and instead said the people of Delhi had chosen development over BJP. Calling the Delhi Assembly elections a fight between “a giant and a pygmy”, Chowdhury said AAP was winning the capital contest despite BJP using all its might to wrest power.
“The common people have decided they will choose either BJP or AAP. It’s a vote for the development agenda. The entire government, along with all its entire machinery, had been deployed in Delhi to win this election. From PM to grassroots workers, it’s been a fight between a giant and a pygmy and the pygmy has won,” PTI quoted Chowdhury as saying.
Meanwhile, Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra blamed the polarisation politics of BJP and AAP for the party’s debacle in the elections while taking responsibility for the performance.
“I take responsibility for the party’s performance, we will analyse the factors behind this. Reason for the drop in our vote percentage is politics of polarisation by both BJP and AAP,” he told reporters.
Latest trends show that the party will face a similar fate like in the 2015 elections, where it failed to open its account. Congress, which ruled Delhi for three terms from 1998 to 2013 with Sheila Dikshit at the helm, campaigned around the development work that happened during the late CM’s tenure.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath said Congress was already aware of its fate in Delhi. “We were already aware of it. The question is – what happened to BJP which was making big claims?” Nath said.
Congress, which got just 10% of votes in 2015, saw its share dip to below 5 per cent in the 2020 elections.