Delhi polls: A do or die battle for Congress stalwarts

New Delhi: It’s a do or die battle for several former Congress MLAs and party stalwarts contesting the Delhi Assembly elections on Saturday. Many within the Congress party feel that this could be perhaps put an end to the political careers of those stalwarts who will get defeated by their rivals in the Assembly elections.

It’s also going to be a litmus test for the Congress to see whether its last-minute gamble to field former Union minister Ajay Maken as its chief ministerial candidate can bring dividends for the party. All eyes are also on Muslim voters who had chosen the AAP over the Congress in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Even after getting a large number of Muslim votes, the party could manage to win just eight of the 70 seats in the last Assembly elections. The party was decimated to third position in all the Assembly segments during the Lok Sabha elections with a large chunk of the 12 per cent Muslim voters opting for the AAP.

The Congress, which has left no stone unturned to make a comeback in the city, made desperate attempts by fielding Maken and former parliamentarian Mahabal Mishra in the state elections. For better coordination in its election campaign, the party even withdrew the candidature of Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely from the Gandhi Nagar seat.

Among the Congress heavyweights contesting for their survival are former Delhi ministers Ashok Kumar Walia, Raj Kumar Chauhan, Prof. Kiran Walia, former Speakers Yoganand Shastri and Choudhury Prem Singh and former MLAs Subhash Chopra, Brahmpal, Jile Singh Chauhan, Bheesham Sharma, Master Bijender Singh and Malaram Gangwal.

For the Congress stalwarts, political pundits said this was going to be a candidate-to-candidate contest in each constituency. Some stalwarts were reportedly seen requesting the voters not to vote for the party but for the party candidates. A senior local candidate was seen telling voters, “You are not voting for the Congress. You are voting for your candidate.”

Sources said that the Congress had strategically targeted those 32 seats where the Muslim vote share is more than 10 per cent. All through its two-week campaign, the party made desperate attempts to woo about 60 to 70 per cent voters in unauthorised and resettlement colonies and jhuggi clusters. The party’s focus was also on its erstwhile stronghold in the 12 reserved seats, where the AAP had created a dent by winning as many as nine seats in the last poll.

In the 32 Muslim-dominated seats, where the community’s vote share is above 10 per cent, the BJP had won 12, AAP 10 and one was won by an Independent candidate in 2013 Assembly polls. The Congress candidates had aggressively highlighted the BJP’s “communal agenda” in the Muslim-dominated seats, which were won by the saffron outfit in 2013. These constituencies are Adarsh Nagar, Bawana, Kirari, Uttam Nagar, Badarpur, Krishna Nagar, Shahdara, Rohtas Nagar Ghonda, Babarpur, Gokalpur and Karawal Nagar.