Delhi polls: Congress candidates left to fend for themselves

NEW DELHI: While BJP and AAP ran a high-octane campaign for the February 8 assembly elections, Congress was found wanting with not many senior functionaries hitting the ground in support of party candidates.
Barring the last week, when several star campaigners, including former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and ex-PM Manmohan Singh addressed public meetings, the campaign since January 6, when the elections were announced, was insipid.
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While some candidates blamed it on delay in distribution of tickets, some said there was a lack of coordination with the central office. Another candidate said after giving the ticket, the party left them to fend for themselves.
“Only those who have been in electoral politics for long and are financially strong managed to stay afloat. For newcomers like me, everything had to be done single-handedly. Our requests for scheduling meetings of star campaigners were not replied to for days,” said a candidate requesting anonymity.
Though the three major political parties — BJP, AAP and Congress — are seeking a majority in the 70-member assembly, the contest looks more pronounced between the two parties governing the state and the Centre.
Both AAP and BJP held hundreds of roadshows and thousands of meetings, which Congress failed to match. A senior party functionary, however, blamed it on lack of coordination between the candidates and the state and central leadership.
“In no previous assembly poll in Delhi did Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka addressed four public meetings. Our four CMs — Amarinder Singh of Punjab, Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh and V Narayansamy of Puducherry — addressed over 20 public meetings. Senior functionaries such as Bhupender Hooda, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Shatrughan Sinha and Raj Babbar were constantly moving from one assembly segment to another meeting people,” the functionary said.
Though stakes are high for all three parties, Congress is probably fighting a battle for survival. In 2015, the party failed to win a single seat and its vote share plummeted to below 10%. It has shown some signs of revival since. It managed a decent vote share of 21% in the 2017 municipal polls.
The 2019 Lok Sabha election came as a shot in the arm with Congress pipping AAP for the second spot getting over 22.4% votes. A section of party members, however, agreed that the Congress might have lost that advantage.