Delhi Assembly Elections: In the Delhi Assembly Elections, the Congress Party suffered yet another significant defeat, losing all of its seats for the third time in a row. Nonetheless, the party received 6.39% of the vote, a 2% increase over the previous election. Despite receiving only 4.26% of the vote in 2020 and 9.7% in 2015, Congress was unable to get any seats in either election.
Congress Wins Just One Seat and Takes Second Place
The fact that Congress only managed to rank second in one constituency—Kasturba Nagar—but even there, the margin of defeat was more than 11,000 votes was one of its greatest setbacks.
Top leaders were fielded by the Congress, including:
- Sandeep Dikshit, son of former chief minister Sheila Dikshit
- Delhi Congress President Devender Yadav
- Women’s Congress Chief Alka Lamba
But none of these leaders even made it to second place, and all of them lost their elections.
Was a political score being settled by Congress?
Congress had intended to become a kingmaker during the election campaign, but its performance was disappointing.
Many political observers think that the Congress was trying to exact political retribution for the AAP movement’s victory against the Congress administration in Delhi during the 2013 elections. Sheila Dikshit was the Chief Minister for 15 years prior to then, and the Congress had controlled Delhi for three terms in a row.
Was the AAP’s Vote Share Reduced by Congress?
Experts contend that by dividing the AAP’s support base, the Congress indirectly aided the BJP. 📌 The Patparganj seat, where senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia lost by a mere 675 votes, is a perfect example:
- Tarvinder Singh Marwah of the BJP received 38,859 votes.
- AAP candidate Manish Sisodia got 38,184 votes.
- Farhad Suri, a congressional candidate, received 7,350 votes.
This implies that the AAP may have kept the seat if Congress had not filed a challenge.
