Traditional Congress voters returning to fold: Maken

Congress' Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken on Tuesday said that the party's traditional voters are returning to its fold in the city.

"The traditional Congress voters including safai karamcharis, street vendors and slum dwellers have returned to the Congress fold. Besides the minority vote has also shifted to the Congress," he said after results to the civic by-polls had the party winning four out of 13 wards with a 24.87 percent vote share.

Maken said that while the Congress vote share as compared to the 2015 assembly elections has improved by 22 percentage points, while both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have lost 26 percent and four percent vote share respectively.

With the party winning from Qamruddin Nagar, Munirka, Khichripur and Jhilmil, he noted that his party has made inroads in those wards where they had never won before.

Maken said that the results clearly hint that both AAP and BJP must improve their governance.

"The voters have taught AAP a lesson as health and education facilities in the capital have not improved under their governance," he said, and accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of wasting taxpayers' money on self-promotion.

"The Delhi government has spent Rs.207 crore on publicity. Advertisements were given to vernacular dailies in Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi and other regional languages during the odd-even scheme.

"What have people of Karnataka or Kerala got to do with Delhi's odd-even scheme or any other programme implemented by the Delhi government?" he asked.

--IANS

vin-mak/vd