‘Congress is nowhere in the picture’.
NEW DELHI: Both AAP and BJP cadre have started preparations for the upcoming MCD polls and, according to various political pundits, these polls would be a litmus test before the 2024 general elections. However, the Congress is seen losing its ground in the upcoming MCD elections. According to opposition parties and political analysts, the Congress would only draw a single-digit vote share in the MCD polls.
The BJP has been in power at MCD for over 15 years and initially, BJP was in direct competition with Congress, but later AAP gained ground in the national capital and stole the second position from Congress. “This year again, we are going to have stiff competition from AAP and Congress is nowhere in the race,” a senior Delhi BJP leader said. In the 2017 MCD elections, BJP won 181 seats and AAP got 49 seats and congress was third with 31 seats.
In the last month, BJP has launched an aggressive campaign against AAP and keeping the excise policy at the centre stage, the BJP has targeted the AAP leadership. On the other hand, the Delhi Congress unit was seen as silent after some protests against AAP on liquor policy.
“AAP came into the picture of Delhi politics eight years ago and amid this, around five major elections have taken place—two Lok Sabha elections, two Assembly elections and one MCD election. Out of these, two Lok Sabha and one MCD polls have been won by us and two Assembly elections have been won by AAP. Congress is nowhere in the picture,” said a BJP spokesperson.
The Sunday Guardian talked to various political analysts to know why the Congress as a political party lost its position in the capital. “Delhi Congress is left without a face; earlier Sheila Dikshit kept the party at the forefront of Delhi politics for more than a decade. But now the party’s state unit is divided into various factions,” said a senior journalist, who has been covering politics in the capital for the last two decades.
In 2021, byelections took place in five wards, three wards were in east Delhi and two were in North Delhi. In this election, AAP clinched Shalimar Bagh from the BJP and the rest of the seats of Rohini (C), Tirlokpuri, and Kalyanpuri again came into the fold of AAP. But Congress clinched Chauhan Bangar seat from AAP. “In this seat, vote margin was more than 8,000, which helped in increasing the vote share of congress in byelections,” said Harinder Rathore, a political observer.
But according to him, this time, the Congress will be marginalized to single digit vote share in the upcoming local body election. “There is no ground cadre left in Congress. AAP has absorbed most of its vote bank, amid this Congress’s total vote share will remain below five per cent and it might only win 4-5 seats,” predicted Rathore.
A senior leader from BJP, who was once near Congress, said: “Sheila Dikshit used to have a strong hold on Residential Welfare Associations and they used to work as a silent cadre for the congress. But after AAP came into power, the Congress lost its hold on the ground”.
Observers also say that one of the main vote banks, which used to vote for Congress, has also shifted to AAP.
“Earlier, minorities and people belonging to a category used to vote for Congress, but now they vote for AAP. These votes are decisive on many wards and seats in the capital,” said Rathore. This situation has made MCD elections a bipolar competition between BJP and AAP and the grand old party is nowhere in the picture.