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Informist, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025

NEW DELHI – With waves of change sweeping the national capital Saturday, the Congress once again found itself echoing through the empty corridors of power with zero seats to show for their struggle in the Delhi Assembly elections. The party, which ruled the national capital for three consecutive terms from 1998 to 2013, now has a hat-trick of ducks as it hasn't won a single seat in Delhi since 2015 Assembly polls.

The grand old party is struggling to regain its foothold in the national capital. Its leaders, however, expressed a bit of satisfaction over the increase in vote share in the 2025 polls. The party has got 6.4% votes in the current Assembly elections, which records a marginal increase from the 4.26% vote share in the 2020 polls. "The Congress was expecting to do better. It has, however, increased its vote share. The campaign of the Congress was vigorous. It may not be in the Assembly, but it is definitely a presence in Delhi, a presence that will be expanded electorally with the sustained efforts of lakhs of Congress workers. There will be a Congress government once again in Delhi in 2030," Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X, formerly Twitter.

In 2008, when the Congress won Delhi Assembly polls for the third consecutive time, its vote share was 40.31%, which plummeted to 24.55% in 2013 and fell further to 9.7% in 2015. The Congress had won 43 seats in 2008 and lost power in 2013 after winning just eight seats. Its three-time then chief minister Sheila Dikshit lost her New Delhi seat to Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal.

Since the 2013 defeat, the Congress party has been struggling to make a comeback in Delhi. Despite a common belief that Delhi witnessed massive development, especially in infrastructure and transport under the reign of former chief minister Dikshit, the Congress party failed to convert sentiment into votes. It also failed in setting up an appropriate narrative for the Delhi elections.

Lack of strong leadership in the party's Delhi unit and a weak base of ground workers are also responsible for its defeat in the polls. The party's booth workers were absent in most of the areas of Delhi on the polling day.

The Congress party had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Delhi in alliance with the AAP. Both the parties are partners in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, an opposition bloc to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party. There were contradictions in the party's stand also, as a few months before Delhi elections, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attended an opposition rally demanding release of Kejriwal and a week before the polls, he criticised Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia for Delhi liquor scam.

A delay in aggressive campaigning by the national leadership of the Congress also dented the party's prospects. While the AAP and the BJP's top leadership launched campaigns for the polls even before the announcement of polling dates, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Priyanaka Gandhi entered the battle ground a bit late.

However, the party would be seeing a silver lining in the AAP's defeat as it is the only path to its revival in the national capital in the long term. While the BJP's vote share has remained more or less between 32% and 38% since 1993, it was the Congress' vote base that shifted to AAP. Many analysts believe that Congress' primary vote bank – lower middle class, slum dwellers, poor, and Muslims switched to the AAP after the 2013 defeat. End

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

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