Delhi defeat exposes Congress' deeper crisis

When the campaign for Delhi elections began, few expected the Congress party to perform any miracles. But to get a third consecutive duck in the assembly polls and increase its meagre vote share by just 2 per cent, is bad even for the most ardent pragmatists in the party.

A majority of the Congress candidates in fact lost their security deposits in this election. This is the Congress that once ruled the national capital for 15 consecutive years.

Ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) burst onto the scene in 2013, it came at the cost of the Congress and today the contest in Delhi has become a bipolar one, between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AAP. The Congress vote share only ate into the AAP votes and ended up helping the BJP in 14 seats.

A ray of optimism

Some Congress leaders have been at pains to project a silver lining, unable to hide their glee at AAP’s defeat. Arvind Kejriwal has been a common irritant for both the BJP and the Congress party. Now, some in the Congress believe this could be the beginning of the end of AAP and a chance for the Congress to truly revive.

Here is why this assumption is a mistake. Firstly, it is way to early to write Kejriwal’s political obituary. With a vote share of nearly 44 per cent, only 3 per cent less than the BJP, the AAP may have lost the election, but it was not quite the wipeout that has been projected.

There is no doubt the AAP faces an existential crisis at the moment especially with the defeat of Kejriwal himself, but this moment could also be an opportunity for him to become a feisty opposition leader in Delhi and reinvent the party.

A sluggish campaign

On the other hand, it is baffling why the Congress has struggled to find its feet even in the national capital. This was a lacklustre campaign run by the party, that almost did not seem to care that there was an election.

Ridden by factionalism, the Delhi Congress has been unable to find a face after Sheila Dikshit. Add to that has been the confusion about the Congress party’s relationship with AAP.

In 2013, they supported the AAP from outside to keep the BJP out. Many of the cadre were deeply unhappy with this move given the strident anti-Congress campaign run by the AAP. Today at the national level, both parties are in alliance in the INDIA bloc but at the assembly level, it has been a no holds barred, nasty campaign mostly targeting each other.

The Congress will also have to introspect as to why it has lost support among Muslims and Dalits in Delhi. But there are bigger problems for the Congress. The defeat in Delhi comes on the heels of defeats in Maharashtra, Haryana and its poor performance in Jammu and Kashmir. The bump the party got in the Lok Sabha polls has withered away.

Lines are drawn

Knives are out within the INDIA bloc over why the Congress should even lead the alliance. There is a question mark over whether the INDIA bloc can even survive from here.

Since 2014, the Congress has struggled to take on the BJP with some exceptions. Despite exercises in “introspection”, it continues to struggle. Part of the problem appears to be over confidence when they do see a rare victory, as well as a disdainful attitude towards allies.

It doesn’t help when powerful groups in the Congress believe that parties like the AAP have no right to have national aspirations (how dare they), and so the objective only becomes crushing them rather than rebuilding their own party and creating a new vision to give people.

Finally, Rahul Gandhi needs better advisers. People who aren’t afraid to speak the unvarnished truth. Elections in Bihar are next and here too the Congress is no longer the main player. They need to wake up, now.