Lonely at the bottom, INDIA parties with AAP, Congress says ready to step up its Delhi game

Kejriwal fumed and called the allegations laughable.

Cut to 2025. Recently, the Delhi Congress cancelled at the last minute a press conference to be addressed by AICC treasurer Ajay Maken where Kejriwal was to be targeted as “deshdrohi (traitor)”. Sources in the Congress said the leadership – some say Gandhi himself – was not comfortable with this line of attack against the AAP supremo.

Apart from being INDIA partners, the Congress and AAP have been toying with the idea of being poll allies as well. So, even after the AAP trounced the Congress in Punjab in the 2022 Assembly polls, the two had a seat-sharing arrangement in Delhi as well as Haryana for the Lok Sabha elections. But come the Assembly polls in Haryana in November, the Congress rejected the AAP’s outreach for a tie-up.

Now, the same is being repeated in Delhi, with the central Congress at least for a while seen as being keen on an alliance but stonewalled by state leaders.

With the AAP seen as the only force likely to hold back the BJP in Delhi, the Congress’s INDIA bloc allies have started lining up behind it. If the TMC and Samajwadi Party have openly backed the AAP, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has said the AAP, and not the Congress, is in a better position to take on the BJP.

The RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav stirred the waters further saying the INDIA bloc was an arrangement made only for the Lok Sabha elections. On Thursday, National Conference leader and Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah went one step further, saying INDIA should be wound up if it was meant only for the parliamentary polls.

“After the Assembly elections in Delhi, they should call all the alliance members for a meeting. If this alliance was only for the parliamentary elections, it should be wound up, and we will work separately. But if it is meant for Assembly elections as well, we will have to sit together and work collectively… As far as I remember, no time limit was set for this. The issue is that no meeting of the INDIA bloc is being convened,” Omar said.

He added that there was no clarity regarding the main leadership, the parties, or the future strategy of the INDIA bloc. “Whether this alliance will continue is also unclear.”

This brings further pressure on the Congress, which is already at its lowest ebb in the Capital, but still the presumptive leader of INDIA so far. In the past two elections held in the Capital, across the Assembly and Lok Sabha, the Congress did not win a single seat. Its vote share dipped from 40.31% in 2008 to 24.55% in 2013, to around 9% in 2015, to a meagre 4.26% in 2020.

There is also an impression among Congress supporters that the party is “not serious” about the Delhi elections. It is a common practice for the party to set up a campaign committee and several poll-related panels before every election. In Delhi, where elections are now less than a month away, the party is yet to set up a campaign committee. There are no senior central observers in place either.

However, sources close to the Congress campaign said that the party is very much in the game, with observers appointed for every Assembly constituency, a concerted campaign in the works, and no ambiguity about the stand on the AAP.

“We have roped in MPs, MLAs, former MLAs and ministers from other states and two each have been assigned per seat. For instance, Lok Sabha MP Tanuj Punia is in charge of Timarpur seat, former Maharashtra minister Nitin Raut is in charge of Gokalpur, Ajay Kumar Lallu is in charge of Wazirpur and former Union minister Pradeep Jain Aditya in charge of Chandni Chowk,” a senior leader said. The other observers include Hisar MP Jayprakash for Bawana, Bharatpur MP Sanjana Jatav for Kasturba Nagar, and Churu MP Rahul Kaswan for Najafgarh.

For the creatives, the Congress has hired Gurugram-based XPLUSD Events Pvt Ltd, while another company is looking at media distribution. A leader in charge of the campaign said: “It will be an aggressive campaign against the AAP government and Kejriwal. We will roll it out in the next few days. Soon you will see outdoor spots, jingles on the radio, advertisements on digital media and newspapers.”

A leader said that the Congress is clear that the only way the party can bounce back in the Capital, where it ruled for 15 straight years, was the weakening of the AAP. “Whatever our friends in the INDIA bloc say, it is the AAP that has taken away our votes,” the leader said, pointing out that the BJP vote share has not increased much. “Their vote share was around 36% in 2008 and was 38% in the last elections. On the other hand, we went down from 40% to 4%… So we have to attack the AAP. Yes, there may be a difference of perception on the line of attack, but there is no difference of opinion in the party that the AAP and its governance record has to be targeted.”

The leader said that the Congress would, in fact, highlight a “Congress model” to counter the “AAP model”.

“Instead of name-calling, we plan to run a positive campaign,” another leader said, elaborating: “Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar announced our first guarantee – monthly financial assistance of Rs 2,500 to women under the Pyari Didi Yojana. We had promised to give women Rs 2,000 per month in Karnataka and our government delivered on its promise within three months of coming to power. (Former Rajasthan CM) Ashok Gehlot announced our second guarantee – universal health insurance up to Rs 25 lakh. We are planning to get ex-CMs Bhupesh Baghel and Charanjit Singh Channi, and Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, to announce promises on education, power… We are going to tell Delhi that our governments have implemented welfare schemes we promised. The Congress has a track record.”