Congress watches Delhi polls from the sidelines

Congress appears to have given a walkover to the AAP, opting to watch the Delhi Assembly elections from the sidelines, with senior leaders keeping away from the poll fray, topped with a half-hearted poll campaign.

Congress-ruled Delhi with a firm grip for 15 years from 1998 to 2003, with the party winning more than 40% of the vote in the 2008 Assembly elections before it lost ground to Arvind Kejriwal, who had planned and executed the anti-corruption campaign in 2011.

The first major blow came in 2013 Assembly polls when it was relegated to the number three position, but with a respectable 24% vote share, as the AAP emerged victorious with 28 seats in the 70-member Assembly – seven short of a simple majority.

Fifteen months later, the mid-term elections in 2015 saw the Congress wiped out from the Delhi Assembly, as it drew a blank as Kejriwal marched ahead with a landslide win.

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A handful of senior party leaders, such as Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia hit the campaign trail in the capital, as against the blitzkrieg launched by the BJP, which fielded its top leaders for electioneering.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi hit the campaign trail in the final leg, addressing rallies on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Senior leaders such as Ajay Maken, J P Agarwal and Mahabal Mishra chose to ignore Congress president Sonia Gandhi's plea to contest the Assembly elections, which have given the party to field fresh faces and experiment with new leadership.

Mishra's son Vinay joined the AAP and was fielded as a candidate from Dwarka South West, prompting the Congress to suspend the father from the party in the middle of the election.

Add to the woes, the party was rocked by differences between Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra and the campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad, which left the party candidates without much organisational support.

Opinion polls have pegged the Congress at a distant number three, with not more than 5% votes with AAP and BJP in a virtually bipolar contest.