The third corner in the three-way fight for Delhi in the upcoming Assembly election, the Congress, has
“There has been no delay. Our senior leaders like Raj Babbar are campaigning. The BJP has deployed all its senior leaders because they are scared and frustrated,” a Congress leader was quoted as saying by PTI.
According to reports, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to hold two rallies in the National Capital while Rahul and Priyanka are likely to be part of roadshows in multiple constituencies.
India Today also reported that the Congress struggled with the lack of candidates in the nomination period, with senior Delhi Congress leaders, including Ajay Maken, refusing to contest and instead endorsing their family members. “Many viewed that the party was facing a certain loss and they feared too much of risk for their reputation,” the report said.
Once a dominant player in Delhi politics, the Congress under the chief ministership of Sheila Dikshit ruled the national capital from 1998 to 2013. It has been on a downward slope since it was dislodged from power.
In 2013, the party bagged 24 percent of the total votes and in 2014 Lok Sabha polls held six months later, it slipped to 15 percent. But it fell drastically to 9.7 in 2015 — a chunk of it went to the AAP with whom it shares a similar voter base. In the 2017 MCD polls, the Congress improved its vote share to nearly 21 percent. In 2019, it dislodged the AAP to the third position, bagging 22 percent of the votes.
Will the AAP benefit?
With the incumbent ruling party in the National Capital being perceived as the most promising opponent for the BJP, the AAP is likely to receive a majority of votes from the Congress’ traditional vote base.
Even though a Hindustan Times report says that Congress is reportedly likely to put up a tough fight in seats like Gandhi Nagar, Badli, Seelampur, Mustafabad, and Ballimaran on the back of the argument that the Muslim community is “disillusioned” with the AAP’s silence on the more than month long Shaheen Bagh protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the lack of a campaign from the Congress and a strategically “positive” campaign by the AAP is likely to tip the scales in favour of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.
‘Let’s go positive’ has been the cruz of the AAP’s strategy to take on BJP and Congress in the Assembly election. The message has been conveyed loud and clear to all party MLAs, leaders and volunteers with a special emphasis on the work done by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government in the last five years, with a roadmap for the next five years, this Firspost report said.
Not resorting to any negative narrative to attack its political opponents, the AAP has chalked out a blueprint that encompasses direct dialogue with its voters through multiple tools, on multiple platforms and communicate Delhi government’s achievements and share its future vision, as per the report.
“We’re communicating positive aspects of Delhi government and the work done for the citizens on multiple platforms. We’re talking about good governance and how it has impacted lives of millions in Delhi. The government provides free water and subsidised electricity, and through this people save money which they utilise in improving their living standard and meet their aspirations, however small it may be,” Pankaj Gupta, national secretary of AAP told Firstpost in the 4 January report.
AAP has decided to give a twist to its campaigning style by not resorting to traditional public addresses. Instead it plans to go to the public and ask them about achievements and problems in respective localities by organising jan samvad (public dialogue) and mohalla sabhas. Ahead of the upcoming elections, the party has gone for large-scale recruitment of new volunteers and has trained them on contact programme, door-to-door campaigning, booth-level mobilisation of voters, among others.
Free water, subsidised electricity, education (remodelled Delhi government schools) and Mohalla clinics are likely to be the four major thrust areas (or public utility services) that AAP would like to play up in its poll campaigns and on social media.
The AAP has scored a strategic victory by steering the election debate into governance. It has deliberately stayed clear of contentious national issues, which leaves the main Opposition BJP with no strong talking point against the party, another Firstpost report noted.
With inputs from agencies