Subhash Chopra, Delhi Congress chief on Tuesday blamed the “politics of polarisation by both BJP and AAP” for the drop in the party’s vote share in the 2020 Delhi Assembly election.
“I take responsibility for the party’s performance. We will analyse the factors behind this. Reason for the drop in our vote percentage is politics of polarization by both BJP and AAP,” ANI quoted Chopra as saying.
By noon, four hours after the counting started, the Congress had garnered just over 4% of the votes against 53% by the Aam Aadmi Party and 39% by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Congress, which ruled Delhi consecutively for 15 years from 1998 to 2013, was staring at another whitewash after drawing a blank in the 2015 assembly elections in the national capital.
While some Congress sought comfort in the fact that AAP was set to retain power, one party leader who did not wish to be named warned that AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal was a bigger threat to the grand old party than Narendra Modi or the BJP in the long run because of his “national ambitions” and could cut into their votes.
The Congress ran a lacklustre campaign in contrast to the focused one that the AAP ran on its record of development and people-friendly policies and the BJP’s hyper-nationalism campaign.
A leadership crisis and overdependence on legacy also appeared to be the reasons behind the Congress’s dismal show. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra got into election mode towards the end of the campaign and addressed a few rallies.
The central theme of the Congress’s campaign was the “good work” by former chief minister Sheila Dikshit during her 15-year rule but that seemed to find no resonance among Delhi’s voters.
