Will Congress emerge as one of the main contenders for the power after Delhi Assembly Elections 2025?
Will the party that was pushed out of power in 2013 by a popular movement against alleged corruption after three consecutive terms, will make a comeback?
Can it find political space and fill the void created by the mood against anti-incumbency for one party and the lack of leadership in the other?
Opportunity For Congress To Return?
Is it a golden opportunity for Congress to return to the seat of power that is at the centre of the national capital?
If media reports are to be believed, grass-root workers and local as well as state-level leaders of the Congress are so much confident of their victory that they opposed the central leadership’s attempt to forge an alliance with the BJP.
Also Read: Delhi Assembly Elections 2025: Will RSS Use Hindutva To Propel BJP To Power?
Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge wanted a seat-adjustment deal with the AAP to maintain the unity in the opposition alliance of INDIA.
They put pressure on the local leaders not to go ahead with the “Dilli Padyatra”, which was wrapped up hurriedly midway.
AAP, Congress Part Ways
However, the Grand Old Party and the AAP were not on the same page, the ruling party of Delhi refused to share seats with it partly because of its confidence and partly because Congress had refused to share seats with them in Haryana.
The talks proved to be a non-starter with Arvind Kejriwal declaring his intention of going it alone in the Delhi Elections. The two parties parted ways, chose their paths and now face each other.
Also Read: Has BJP Fielded Ramesh Bidhuri Under Well-Crafted Strategy To Polarise Voters In Delhi?
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party seems to be in a better position if its performance since its inception is analysed.
AAP In Better Position
The two parties reached an agreement only once, Lok Sabha Election 2024. They joined hands to fight against the BJP and polled 43.1% of votes, though they failed to win a single Parliament seat from Delhi.
The AAP, which was formed on the wave of the corruption charges against the Congress ate into the vote bank of the Grand Old Party. The party got 29% of the votes in the 2013 Delhi Assembly Elections and won 28 seats in the 70-member House.
The Congress was pushed to third place with 24.5% of the votes cast and just eight assembly seats. The Grand Old Party slipped to 9.7% votes in 2015. It touched ITS nadir in 2020 with a dismal 4.3% of votes polled.
The AAP seems to have grabbed the votes of Congress by polling 54.6% in 2015 and 53.6% vote share in 2020.
BJP Consolidates Gains
The BJP on the other hand, has progressively moved ahead on the path of popularity and garnered 33.1% votes in 2015 and 32.3% of votes polled in 2020.
The saffron party, known for its tactics of polarising votes by raising the issues of Hindutva and caste just before the election, has come out with its trump cards- Ramesh Bidhuri and Parvesh Singh Verma.
The Gurjar Factor
Ramesh Bidhuri, who represents the Gurjar community, is also known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric. He hit the headlines when he used unparliamentary language and abuses against fellow MP Danish Ali on the floor of the house last year.
Soon after, the BJP made him the election in-charge of Gurjar-dominated Tonk district in the Rajasthan Assembly Election. It was an important decision considering the fact that former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot hails from Tonk.
The saffron party has brought this war-horse to win the Gurjar-dominated areas of Badarupur, Tughlakabad, Sangam Vihar, Ghonda, Gokulpuri, Karawal Nagar, and Okhla.
Bidhuri can help the BJP in two ways- he can attract Gurjar votes as well as polarise the election on the Hindutva and ultra-nationalist planks.
BJP Targets Delhi CM
He attacked Delhi Chief Minister Atishi after she dropped her surname and said that she changed her father. He alleged that Atishi’s father defended terrorist Afzal Guru and wanted the death sentence awarded to him to be squashed.
A group of persons made a petition to then President A P J Abdul Kalam to pardon Guru on the ground that he did not receive a fair trial. Atishi’s father was one of them.
Though Atishi has distanced herself from her father, the BJP has attacked her and made a poll issue. This serves the ultra-nationalist image of the saffron party.
Congress Takes Up Delhi’s Backwardness
But the Congress has taken up a third path- that of backwardness of Delhi. Former Chief Minister Sheila Dixit’s son Sandeep has been pitted against Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi, a constituency full of civil servants, bureaucrats, judges, businessmen and central government employees.
This was once considered a pocket borough of Congress as Sheila Dixit won this seat and became Chief Minister three times, before her final and humiliating defeat at the hands of rookie politician Arvind Kejriwal in 2013.
Kejriwal won the New Delhi seat with a margin of more than 21,000 votes in 2020. However, political analysts believe, he may find an uphill task this time considering the three-way contest. The BJP has pitched Parvesh Singh Verma, son of former Chief Minister Saheb Singh Verma.
Sandeep Dixit has made the point that Delhi has been ignored and no development has taken place in the national capital. He talks of unrepaired roads, choked sever lines, and polluted Yamuna river.
Are Congress Leaders Not Interested?
However, the political observers believe, the Congress leadership does not seem to be in an aggressive mood and swing into action to win the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025. Less than one month is left for the polling and the central leadership has not yet declared the names of election-incharges and observers.
Besides, no central leader has uttered a word about the Delhi Elections, they have not declared any programme either. Analysts believe the grand old party is busy in saving the INDIA bloc somehow. They are perhaps not interested in the polls in Delhi and wants to leave to to local leaders.
INDIA bloc partners like the TMC and the Samajwadi Party have backed the AAP in Delhi. However, political observers question its impact because they don’t have supporters or workers in the national capital.
What will happen next? Will the Congress save the tottering INDIA bloc or fight the Delhi Elections tooth and nail?
