Why Congress is hoping to make gains in Punjab through Delhi Assembly polls?

Photo : Naveen Bansal

A rejuvenated Congress, with an active backing of its Central leaders, is hoping for a revival in the national capital, and later in Punjab. The grand old party feels that it has been presented with a golden opportunity to reemerge in key areas like Delhi and Punjab, where the AAP grew at its expense and on false allegations against Congress’ leadership, if it is able to dislodge the Arvind Kejriwal-led party in the forthcoming Assembly polls.

There is a section of leadership in the Congress who want to utilize this opportunity to ensure that it is able to regain lost ground in the national capital. This is the reason for the aggressive involvement of top central leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the last days of campaign for the legislature. 

Photo : Naveen Bansal

“Instead of backing Kejriwal in the name of opposition unity, as AAP is also a member of INDIA bloc, the focus of the party high command was on distancing itself from the AAP leader,” sources said.

This was done after the Delhi leaders convinced the central Congress leadership that the party needs to perform well on its own to regain lost ground, which would later help it I  Punjab as well. Interestingly, several Congress MLAs from Punjab have also been actively engaged in campaign for the Delhi polls over the past few weeks. 

There is a hope that if AAP is defeated in Delhi, the Congress can replicate the same electoral strategy in Punjab as well. 

There was an anger amongst party cadres that while the Congress ceded its space in Delhi and Punjab to the AAP, its top leadership was seemingly unwilling to fight back and regain its rightful share in these regions. But this strategic mistake was rectified by the Congress leadership in the ongoing electoral campaign as it launched waves of scathing attacks on Aam Aadmi Party, sources said. 

The Congress wants to reemerge as a serious political player and regain lost ground in Delhi and Punjab, hence the party high command’s rethink on political strategy. Sources pointed out that despite being in government twice, AAP has not been able to prove any charges that it had levelled against Sheila Dikshit or her ministers. 

The grand old party has been strongly putting across the point that AAP’s win against Sheila Dikshit was a conspiracy enacted through maligning its leaders without any evidence of corruption against her government and take back its share of votes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. 

The grand old party is hoping to do well in about 15 Assembly seats as it tries hard to win back lost vote bank. 

The 70-member Delhi Assembly is scheduled to go for polls on February 5 and the results will be announced on February 8.