New Delhi: Months ahead of the assembly polls in Delhi, the Congress, eager to reclaim lost territory, is launching an aggressive campaign against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), accusing its INDIA bloc ally of taking the city through “a decade of misgovernance”.
From 8 November to 4 December, the Congress’ Delhi unit will take out a Nyay Yatra, March for Justice, across the metropolis to “expose” the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP’s role behind the city’s “state of disrepair”.
Ever since getting dislodged from power in Delhi in 2013 by Kejriwal, the Congress has faced a conundrum on dealing with the AAP, with its local unit’s desire to take a combative approach often finding itself at odds with the high command.
The Congress central leadership, on many occasions, intervened to make its local unit dial down aggression against the AAP and make common cause against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In March, top Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had attended a rally called by the AAP to protest Kejriwal’s arrest in the Delhi excise policy case.
In the 2024 general elections, the two parties put up a united front against the BJP in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Goa and Chandigarh under the umbrella of the Opposition’s joint platform Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
Months later though, efforts made by sections of the two parties for seat-sharing in the Haryana assembly elections fell through. While Rahul Gandhi felt that seat-sharing between the two parties could be explored, the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led state leadership resisted the proposal.
Against this backdrop, the Congress high command’s go-ahead to its Delhi unit to launch the campaign against the AAP is significant, as it shrinks the possibility of any alliance in the Delhi polls due in 2025.
The AAP response will also be keenly watched as it recently decided to sit out the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Instead, it announced that Kejriwal will campaign for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, of which the Congress is a part, in Maharashtra and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress coalition in Jharkhand.
At the campaign’s curtain raiser Monday, Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Pawan Khera said the AAP, which has been governing Delhi continously since 2015, has undone the “regeneration of Delhi” witnessed under the Congress rule between 1998 and 2013 when Sheila Dikhit was the chief minister.
“They (AAP) have just been peddling lies. Our weakness is that we did a lot but publicised very less. They have done quite the opposite,” Khera, who served as Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD) and political secretary, said.
Currently, he is the chairman of the party’s media and publicity department.
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Devender Yadav said the aim of the yatra was to “expose the AAP government which has cheated the people of Delhi over the last decade”.
“Today, people are either using dirty water or depending on tankers. The city has turned into a gas chamber. Yamuna is more polluted than ever. Roads are in a dilapidated state. It’s time we become the voice of the people of Delhi,” Yadav, who represented the Badli assembly constituency from 2008 to February 2014, said.
Yadav said that the yatra will be held in four phases, covering between 16-20 constituencies in each of them. The inaugural phase, which will touch 16 seats, will commence from Raj Ghat on 8 November, he said.
Delhi Congress sources added that the yatra will seek to cover 10-15 km daily, before halting for the night at designated camps where the leaders and workers will stay.
There will also be multimedia exhibits highlighting the “failures” of the AAP at the yatra, which will invoke Delhi’s “golden era” under the Congress. Yadav said the idea was to build on the success of the two cross-country marches—one on foot and the other on a bus—taken out by Rahul Gandhi over the last two years.
The Congress failed to get a single MLA elected to the 60-member Delhi assembly in 2015 and 2020. In 2013, its tally had dropped to eight, as the AAP, on the back of the India Against Corruption movement, made a stunning electoral debut, winning 28 seats.
After the results, the Congress extended support to the AAP, paving the way for Kejriwal’s first stint as the CM. However, the arrangement lasted only 49 days, as Kejriwal quit from his post, attributing the move to the opposition from the Congress and the BJP in the tabling of the Jan Lokpal Bill.
In 2015 and 2020, the AAP won the elections with overwhelming majorities of 67 and 62 seats, decimating the BJP, and wiping out the Congress from its citadel.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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