Open war in Congress over Delhi debacle

An open war today broke out in the Congress over its whitewash in the Delhi elections with senior leader Sheila Dikshit attacking Chief Ministerial candidate Ajay Maken and the party virtually asking her to shut up.

Knives were out in the party over the  debacle with Congress in charge of the party affairs in Delhi P C Chacko and DPCC chief Arvinder Singh Lovely strongly coming out backing the beleaguered Maken, who was the party's chief ministerial face.

"I just pity him. Ajay Maken was not the way to put the right focus. He thought he would do all by himself. He did not involve anyone else. Quite obviously his style did not help the Congress party," 76-year-old Dikshit said, in a no-holds- barred attack on her younger rival in the party.

P C Chacko hit back at Dikshit saying that it was better for Dikshit to keep silence and said the party does not endorse her views.

Maken's supporter and DPCC Chief Arvinder Singh Lovely said there was no benefit of giving advice after the elections.

Dikshit appeared to fault the last-minute decision to bring in Maken saying "change was made in the last minute. Ajay Maken coming in and Arvinder Singh Lovely not contesting."

"Maken could not enthuse the party. He failed to highlight the achievements of the Congress governments in the 15 years till 2013.  It was not my achievement. It was Congress' achievement. They should have taken my name (during the campaign). Had they done it, the party would have done better," she told PTI.

The former Chief Minister said she would soon go to party Chief Sonia Gandhi to discuss about the ways to revive Congress in Delhi saying it was currently in "very bad shape" and that she was pained to see it losing its support base so dramatically.

Dikshit also indicated her willingness to take the responsibility to lead the party's revival. "It is up to the party high-command to take a decision on the issue," she said.