India
INDIA bloc divided: Can Congress avoid another defeat in Delhi after Kejriwal says no to alliance? | India News – Times of India
On Wednesday, Kejriwal went to X to reiterate that Aam Aadmi Party (MONKEY) will fight the Delhi elections on his own. “There is no possibility of an alliance with the Congress,” the former Delhi chief minister said in a post.
In a tit-for-tat response, Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav also said his party will go solo in the polls as it is in a very strong position to win the contest. Yadav alleged that Congress had to pay a heavy price for joining the Kejriwal-led outfit in the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year.
The AAP and Congress had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Delhi together under the banner of INDIA earlier this year but lost on all seven seats to the BJP.
AAP’s announcement was on expected lines, especially after mute Kejriwal’s party arrived in Haryana earlier this year at the hands of the Congress. The two parties failed to reach an agreement on seat sharing in Haryana despite several rounds of talks as an overconfident state Congress leadership led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda was unwilling to accommodate AAP’s demands.
AAP leader Raghav Chadha, who led the Haryana talks when Arvind Kejriwal was then in jail, was absolutely categorical in rejecting reports of an alliance.
“I make it clear that AAP will contest the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections on its own merits. There is no question of any alliance. Reports of any kind of alliance between AAP and Congress are baseless. The AAP has won the last three Delhi elections. For the fourth time alone, when there will be Assembly elections in 2025, AAP will contest on the basis of its work and Arvind Kejriwal’s name and win. There is no chance of an alliance.
Delhi’s Congress unit, which has always opposed any tie-up with AAP, is said to be happy at the prospect of contesting the 2025 Assembly elections on its own. However, the fact remains that the grand old party in Delhi has been on the path of precipitous decline and contesting the elections on its own will be a huge challenge for the party leadership.
In the last two Assembly elections, the Congress was completely decimated in Delhi as it failed to even open its account. In the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections, the AAP won 67 and 62 seats, while the BJP won three and eight seats, respectively. The Congress scored two consecutive zeros in these elections.
Not only that, the party’s vote share, which stood at 48.1% in 2003, has fallen sharply to 4.3% in 2020. In 2013, when the Congress had won eight seats, it had a vote share of 24.6%. However, in 2015 this amounted to approximately 10%. A look at the comparative performance of the two parties shows that the AAP made huge gains at the expense of the Congress in 2015 and 2020, while the BJP managed to improve its vote share despite winning enough seats.
State Congress leaders have already started raising their stand against the AAP government, currently led by Atishi. The Delhi Congress chief claimed that during the month-long “Delhi Nyay Yatra”, the feedback received from millions of people was that the party should stand alone in the Assembly elections.
Yadav alleged that the AAP has lost the credibility and trust of the people after its leaders – Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Satyender Jain and Sanjay Singh – went to jail in connection with corruption and money laundering cases.
The Delhi Congress chief had also recently criticized the AAP and its national Congress president Arvind Kejriwal for being responsible for the ‘deteriorating’ law and order situation in the national capital.
Yadav also demanded that Kejriwal ask for the resignation of Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, the same way he asked for the resignation of former CM Sheila Dixit during the Nirbhaya case.
The Delhi Congress president further alleged that the women are having to bear the brunt of increasing crimes including gang wars, dismissals, murder, rape, harassment and intimidation incidents.
Despite these attacks, the road ahead will likely be very difficult for Congress. It will be a huge task for the party leadership to regain the lost ground in Delhi. With the party already under full attack within the INDIA bloc for its electoral failures, another dismal showing will add to the pressure it is facing. Perhaps a joint contest with AAP would have helped the country win some seats and avoid another possible decimation.
(With input from agencies)
