The party that claimed to have forged the national Capital into a world-class metropolis over a decade and a half failed to secure even a single seat in the sixth Delhi Assembly on Tuesday.
Despite having fielded a galaxy of prominent leaders such as President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmishta Mukherjee, former ministers Haroon Yusuf, Kiran Walia, Yoganand Shastri, and its new acquisition, five-time MLA Shoaib Iqbal, in addition to making taint-less former Union Minister Ajay Maken, the face of its campaign, the Congess’ tally of seats amounted to zero.
In fact, all of these star campaigners lost their deposit for not being able to bag even one-sixth of the total votes polled in their respective Assembly constituencies along side the Left parties which contested on 15 seats.
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The party’s Delhi in-charge, PC Chacko, shortly before tendering his resignation from all party posts, said the party’s loss in terms of vote share was relatively more worrying than the fact that all its former sitting MLAs – with the exception of Arvinder Singh who chose not to contest this time -- lost their respective seats.
During the Assembly elections of 2013, the Congress had succeeded in getting a vote share of 24.55 per cent which got reduced to just 9.7 per cent of the total vote share this time.
Mr. Chacko attributed the increase in the AAP’s vote share to a deflection of its own into the latter’s kitty. “This continuous shed in the vote share is worrying; we admit there is a lot that needs to be done for the long haul; and that the house has to be set in order in terms of organisational issues right down to the booth level in Delhi,” Mr. Chacko said .
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An insider, however, held the senior leadership of the party responsible for its humiliating defeat pointing out that it failed to capitalise on, or even utilise, the anti-BJP sentiment among the minorities. Booth management, especially at important seats, was missing, according to a source, while lack of initiatives taken by its senior leadership made its Delhi unit a “headless animal awaiting slaughter”.
“All the party gave its candidates this time was just the symbol of the palm except which there was no other protection, no guidance, no direction. While the AAP could revive itself within a year, we discovered that 10 booth offices were missing across an important seat such as Greater Kailash,” a leader said.