In the recently concluded Delhi assembly election, the Congress party tacitly supported Aam Aadmi Party in order to defeat BJP. Before the polls when the media personnel had asked whether the Congress was giving a walkover, the party leaders said that they were campaigning door to door and senior party leaders would join the campaign in the following few days. But, actually the senior leaders never joined the campaign!
Senior leaders, including those from Nehru-Gandhi family, did not campaign for the party. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, and Sonia Gandhi did not do a single rally for the party candidates.
In the 2013 Delhi assembly election, the Congress party won 9 seats but 24.6 per cent of votes. Even in the 2015 assembly election, when the party was in its worst phase, it won 9.7 per cent of total votes. But as the party extended tacit support to AAP in 2020, the vote percentage sank below 5 percent and 63 of the party candidates lost deposits.
After AAP registered massive victory in Delhi with 62 seats, various senior leaders of the Congress party celebrated the defeat of BJP, instead of introspecting on its own humiliating defeat.
Now, the Congress party is divided over the fact that whether its leaders should celebrate the victory of AAP or not. The senior leaders are fighting on Twitter over the victory celebration.
A few days ago, senior Congress leaders like Shashi Tharoor, Sharmistha Mukherjee, and a few others slammed P Chidambaram for celebrating AAP’s victory.
With due respect sir, just want to know- has @INCIndia outsourced the task of defeating BJP to state parties? If not, then why r we gloating over AAP victory rather than being concerned abt our drubbing? And if ‘yes’, then we (PCCs) might as well close shop! https://t.co/Zw3KJIfsRx
— Sharmistha Mukherjee (@Sharmistha_GK) February 11, 2020
3 Things Congress should NOT do today:
1. Justify own defeat
2. Find happiness in BJP defeat
3. Tell themselves that in Election wins & losses are cyclicCongratulations to @AamAadmiParty for a well deserved victory & running a focussed campaign.
— Jaiveer Shergill (@JaiveerShergill) February 11, 2020
किसी की जीत पे यूं नाज़ाँ हैं
शिकस्त खा के फतह पाई हो ! #DelhiElectionResults— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) February 12, 2020
Now, a Twitter war has broken out between Delhi Congress leader Ajay Maken and Mumbai Congress leader Milind Deora, over a tweet of the latter, in which he praised the fiscal prudence of AAP, and shared a video of Kejriwal’s speech in assembly.
Deora tweeted, “Sharing a lesser known & welcome fact — the @ArvindKejriwal- led Delhi Government doubled its revenues to 60,000 crore & maintained a revenue surplus over the last 5 years. Food for thought: Delhi is now one of India’s most fiscally prudent governments”.
Sharing a lesser known & welcome fact — the @ArvindKejriwal-led Delhi Government doubled its revenues to ₹60,000 crore & maintained a revenue surplus over the last 5 years.
Food for thought: Delhi is now one of India’s most fiscally prudent governments pic.twitter.com/bBFjbfYhoC
— Milind Deora | मिलिंद देवरा ☮️ (@milinddeora) February 16, 2020
Rattled with Deora’s praise for AAP, Maken asked him to leave Congress. “Brother, you want to leave @INCIndia -Please do-Then propagate half-baked facts! However,let me share even lesser know facts- 1997-98-BE (Revenue) 4,073cr 2013-14-BE (Revenue) 37,459cr During Congress Govt Grew at 14.87% CAGR 2015-16 BE 41,129 2019-20 BE 60,000 AAP Gov 9.90% CAGR,” tweeted Maken.
Brother,you want to leave @INCIndia-Please do-Then propagate half baked facts!
However,let me share even lesser know facts-
1997-98-BE (Revenue) 4,073cr
2013-14-BE (Revenue) 37,459cr
During Congress Govt Grew at 14.87% CAGR2015-16 BE 41,129
2019-20 BE 60,000
AAP Gov 9.90% CAGR— Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) February 16, 2020
On this, Deora replied and reminded Maken that he should have propagated former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit’s work instead of advocating alliance with AAP. “Brother, I would never undermine Sheila Dikshit’s stellar performance as Delhi CM. That’s your specialty. But it’s never too late to change! Instead of advocating an alliance with AAP, if only you had highlighted Sheila ji’s achievements, @INCIndia would’ve been in power today,” tweeted Deora.
Brother, I would never undermine Sheila Dikshit’s stellar performance as Delhi CM. That’s your specialty.
But it’s never too late to change!
Instead of advocating an alliance with AAP, if only you had highlighted Sheila ji’s achievements, @INCIndia would’ve been in power today https://t.co/aiZYdizdUL
— Milind Deora | मिलिंद देवरा ☮️ (@milinddeora) February 17, 2020
The rise of AAP in Delhi hurt the Congress party, as the vote percentage of BJP has remained stagnant with 36.34 per cent in 2008 when Congress was nowhere in the scene, 33 per cent in 2013, and 32.3 per cent in 2015 assembly election. Therefore, BJP has been indifferent to the presence and rise of AAP, but, Congress was hurt badly with Kejriwal’s freebie politics. Its vote percentage was reduced from 40.31 per cent in 2008 to 9.7 per cent in 2015, a 30 per cent drop.
The Congress party has been hurt badly with the rise of AAP and many of its leaders joined the anti-corruption party in the last few months. Just a few days before the nomination for Delhi assembly election began; more than 10 Congress leaders joined BJP. AAP gave the ticket to 6 of the former leaders or MLAs.
With the help of Congress, AAP won a resounding victory in Delhi, but the party leaders are in dilemma whether to celebrate the victory or not. And the open celebration by some leaders like P Chidambaram and Milind Deora has led to massive infighting in the party.
