History seems to be repeating for Congress party in Delhi. In one hour of counting of votes for Delhi Assembly elections, the party has not been able to register leads in any of the 70 constituencies.
The exit polls had said that Congress won’t be able to win a single seat – like in 2015. The elections on 70 seats of Delhi took place on Saturday (February 8) with a voter turnout of 62.59 per cent.
The Congress had, however, rejected exit poll predictions, saying the results will “surprise everyone”.
“Let others celebrate the exit poll results. I am confident that the results on February 11 will startle everyone,” chief spokesperson of Delhi Congress Mukesh Sharma said.
A senior leader of the party had recently said that Congress is hopeful of winning at least 10 seats in the assembly even though the exit polls say otherwise. The party is doing an internal assessment of the voting pattern.
Senior Congress leaders Sandeep Deekshit and Preneet Kaur had said a day before counting that the party will perform poorly in Delhi Assembly elections.
Congress had tied-up with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to capitalise on the Purvanchali votes (those from the eastern part of the country). It contested on 66 out of 70 seats, and left four for ally RJD.
The Congress party had pressed its several leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into campaigning, but was not able to match the high octane campaign of the BJP and the “Bijli Paani” narrative of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The party has seen internal rifts ahead of the elections and could not decide the candidates early which also affected the party’s prospects.
The Congress had ruled the city between 1998 and 2013 but drew a blank in the 2015 polls.
According to the exit polls, the Congress will hardly recover from its rout in 2015. But many say that the party’s lacklustre campaign is also to blame for the anti-BJP votes getting deflected towards the AAP, which is tipped to get anywhere between 48 and 63 seats.
