All doesn’t seem well in the Congress, as the party’s top leaders are set to meet party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday to discuss organizational issues. This meeting comes days after the party’s poor performance in the Delhi Assembly polls, where it failed to open its account. It is pertinent to mention that, including the recently concluded Assembly polls in the national capital, it was the third straight time that the Congress failed to win a single seat in Delhi.
The key party meeting will be attended by Congress MP and LoP Rahul Gandhi and MP KC Venugopal, news agency ANI reported, citing sources. Congress’s performance in the Delhi polls was so poor its candidates lost their security deposits on all but three seats, as nearly 80 percent of all contenders, including those contesting independently, forfeited their deposits.
It was a sorry state of affairs for the Congress that not only drew a blank in terms of seats for a third time in a row, but also 67 of its candidates also lost their security deposits. The Congress, which ruled Delhi for three consecutive terms till 2013, had fielded candidates in all 70 constituencies. After increasing its seats and vote share in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls last year, the Congress failed to capitalize on the momentum and defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in subsequent Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, and Delhi.
Congress’s poor show in Delhi came months after the party’s debacle in Maharashtra and Haryana. In Maharashtra, the party was reduced to 16 seats. As far as Haryana is concerned, the grand old party was confident of snatching the state from the BJP, riding the anti-incumbency wave in the state, but things did not go their way, and the saffron party prevailed and retained power with 48 seats out of 90. The Congress won 37 seats and emerged as the second-largest party.
In the recently concluded Assembly elections in Delhi, the BJP stormed back to power with 48 seats, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was reduced to 22 seats.
(With ANI Inputs)