Delhi Elections | Will Congress’ strategy in Delhi pay off?

Since then the party has managed to swallow its pride, and formed alliances in which it has often played the second fiddle; cases in point: in Maharashtra, where it even went along with arch-rival Shiv Sena in a post-poll alliance and let the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) lead the electoral contest against the BJP, and in Jharkhand, where it quietly and rather surprisingly for the Congress let the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) lead the government without any visible outward acrimony that often marks the formation of coalition governments in India.

Another event that indicated the change within the Congress was the outcome of the Haryana election, where strongman BS Hooda came whisker close to forming the government on his own, and thereby making it clear that the seniors within the party can win on their own terms and without the help of the Gandhi family.

Seen against these developments, what should we make of the insipid Congress campaign in the Delhi elections? Much has been made of the Gandhis’ absence from the campaign trail, but by all indications, it is clear is that the Gandhi family has realised that they are still seen as symbols of dynastic and corrupt politics in much of the Hindi heartland , and therefore they are not vote-catchers but ‘vote-cutters’ in states such as Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Given this, it’s wiser that the Gandhis stay away.

Specifically, in the context of Delhi Congress’s marked absence from the running is a response to the new reality of the Shah-Modi juggernaut. Devoid of either organisational strength or a charismatic state leadership, for the first time in the capital’s political history, the party is focusing only on ensuring that anti-BJP votes are not divided.

It has put up political lightweights in most seats and in some cases where the party has a surer shot at winning, the AAP too has put up weak candidates. One such seat is Gandhi Nagar, where the AAP has given the ticket to a long-time aide of Arvinder Singh Lovely, who has been a four-time MLA from the seat.

Interestingly, the AAP and the Congress have stayed clear from targeting each other, even with regard to the anti-CAA protests across Delhi. This has dented BJP’s plans to shift the focus to polarisation from governance, the main plank of the AAP government.

The Congress has taken a massive and perhaps fatal gamble by sitting out the Delhi elections in the interest of ensuring that the AAP returns to power. It could be rightly said that given its poor financial and organisational strength, the Congress is just not in a position to mount a challenge to either the BJP or the AAP. However, the Congress is stronger today than it was even a year ago. It is in power in at least seven states either alone or in an alliance, up from just Punjab and Pondicherry two years ago. If it really wanted to make it a three-cornered contest it very well could have.

However, it’s not all altruism. The party is putting its best foot forward in seats with sizeable Muslim, Sikh and Dalit populations. To prevent the lost glory of the 15-year Congress rule under Sheila Dikshit from being completely forgotten, it has cleverly made ‘Congress wali Dilli’ its poll slogan.

It remains to be seen whether despite all these efforts, the Congress and the AAP will have the last laugh on February 11.

Valay Singh is a freelance journalist. Views expressed personal.