Delhi elections: Too little, too late to save Congress ship

The possibility of the Congress not getting even a single seat in the Delhi Assembly this time has forced the leaders of the beleaguered party to do some soul-searching.

The polling was conducted on Saturday. Most exit polls predict that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will win, and the Congress - which ruled Delhi for 15 years till 2013 - might end up losing even the eight seats it had won last time. The results are due on Tuesday.

Most leaders who campaigned for the party complained that the Congress has no organisational structure to speak of. After the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections last year, the Pradesh Congress Committee was dissolved. As a result, Congress candidates had no organisational support. The bid to put together a temporary structure, free from the stranglehold of former chief minister Sheila Dikshit, her son Sandeep and aide Pawan Khera, came too late, and was too little.

Recently appointed Delhi in-charge of the All India Congress Committee general secretary P C Chacko has admitted the reason for the dismal performance was lack of an organisational structure. At present, it does not have a state, district or block committee.

Appointed to the helm on the brink of the elections, Chako tried to salvage the sinking ship by drafting 14 former parliamentarians and 70 former legislators from outside Delhi to chip in for the polls. But Pradesh Congress Committee chief Arvinder Singh Lovely reportedly opted out of the fray to focus on its co-ordination.

A former legislator who was drafted in for the polls told Business Standard: "We were brought in a month and a half ago. The candidates had to run their campaigns without any help from the state committee."

Most are questioning the wisdom behind dissolving the state unit when polls were imminent. A senior leader pointed out a more serious issue - the coterie of Sheila that ran Delhi Congress for all these years, leading to its ruin. "The organisation was marginalised, given no role in decision making."

In this election, Sheila was sidelined. None of her former aides were involved in campaigning. Sandeep, was busy with a project for the Madhya Pradesh government.

Ajay Maken, a known baiter of Dikshit, was given the mantel to lead the campaign by the high command. But this, too, was done too late in the day.

"The ground had already been ceded to AAP. We had done precious little between December 2013 and January 2015. Lack of leaders for the organisation hampered the recovery," said a leader.

According to him, having ruled the National Capital Territory for 15 years, Delhi Congress was afflicted by the ruinous malaise of "complacency". There was no thrust to fight, even when it was clear that AAP was eating into Congress's traditional vote banks of Dalits, Muslims and JJ (jugghi-jhopdi) clusters.

"The Delhi Congress just wanted to wish it (AAP) away," said another Congressman, explaining the whittling away of the Congress in the national capital.