Cong ready for Delhi elections, confident of forming govt: Subhash Chopra

Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra on Monday said his party was prepared to face the upcoming Assembly polls, while asserting that it will get a majority and form the government in the national capital.

The 70-member Delhi Assembly will go to polls on February 8 and the results will be declared on February 11, the Election Commission announced on Monday.

The campaign committee chairman of the Congress, Kirti Azad, said the party was ready to run an "aggressive" campaign in the run-up to the elections.

"The Congress will get a majority and form the government on its own. The tide is turning in our favour due to the hollow promises of the AAP and the BJP," Chopra said.

Azad said the Congress will try to corner the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by comparing the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit regime and the current government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the national capital.

"We are prepared and will run an aggressive campaign, which will compare the works done by the Congress under (former chief minister) Sheila Dikshit and the current Kejriwal government in Delhi," Azad said.

The Congress will question the AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the condition of schools, hospitals and regularisation of unauthorised colonies in the national capital, he added.

The grand old party has suffered a series of electoral defeats in Delhi, starting with the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. It drew a blank in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well as in the 2015 Delhi Assembly election.

The parliamentary polls held last year offered a silver lining to the party as under the leadership of late Dikshit, Congress candidates pushed the nominees of the ruling AAP on to the third place in five of the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital.

The Congress managed to improve its vote share, although it failed to win any seat. The party got over 22 per cent votes, which was considerably higher than the over-18 per cent votes polled by the AAP.

"We have been on the election mode for the last few weeks, holding 'Halla Bol' rallies, protests and demonstrations across Delhi, not only to expose the failures and falsehood of the BJP and AAP governments, but also to highlight the achievements of the Congress governments headed by Sheila Dikshit," Chopra said.

The Delhi Congress president has already announced that the party will provide relief to people consuming up to 600 units of electricity in Delhi per month. He has also promised to raise the welfare pension amount to up to Rs 5,000 per month.

The party has also asserted that it will not implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Delhi if it comes to power.

Ajay Maken, the head of the party's manifesto committee for the Delhi polls said on Sunday that it will be a major election promise of the Congress.

The Delhi Congress has set up a "war room" to connect with party leaders, workers and candidates in all the 70 Assembly constituencies.

Chief spokesperson of the Delhi Congress Mukesh Sharma said the process of candidate selection was underway.

"Winnability will be the prime criterion for ticket distribution," he said.

The "war room" at the Delhi Congress office has been operationalised, connecting all the 70 constituencies.

Ward-level committees of the party have been constituted and Congress workers will step up campaigning from Tuesday, Sharma said.