Delhi polls 2020: Congress' pride at stake in lost fort

On February 8, Delhi will turn up at the booths and press the button on the EVM to vote for their respective parties. The fight for the national capital is intense and fierce this time with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the Opposition BJP vying for glory. And in this race, another major player is looking somewhat underwhelming. The gusto of the Indian National Congress to win back Delhi is falling short of the expected mark with former party president Rahul Gandhi trying hard to provide a late flourish in an otherwise mundane campaign.

Delhi was once Congress' citadel. In the 1993 Legislative Assembly elections, when Union Territory of Delhi was formally declared as the National Capital Territory of Delhi by the Sixty-ninth Amendment to the Indian Constitution, BJP clinched victory in 49 seats while Congress trailed with 14 seats under their belt.

But the scenario changed in 1998 when Congress stormed to power with 52 seats, with BJP managing to gain 17 seats. Sheila Dikshit replaced BJP's Sushma Swaraj as the Chief Minister of Delhi, a title she would hold for the next 15 years.

Congress won the 2003 Assembly elections with 47 seats while their tally reduced in 2008 Assembly elections to 43 seats, and it detoriated to an abysmal 8 in 2013 Assembly elections. It was the beginning of the end of Congress in Delhi.

0,0,0: Congress' tally in the next three major elections in Delhi

They catapulted to a humiliating defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, and it was followed by the 2015 Assembly elections, a year marked by Aam Aadmi Party's rise to power when they swept aside their opponents by winning a staggering 67 seats. If anyone in the party hoped for any improvement in the performance in Delhi, it was demolished in 2019 General Elections when Congress again failed to win a single seat while BJP won in all seven seats, including the important North East Delhi seat where actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari defeated Sheila Dikshit by a mammoth margin of 3,66,102 votes.

An uphill task awaits Congress in the upcoming Assembly elections. At a time when they are trying to re-establish their supremacy in the map of Indian politics, Delhi holds added importance, especially for the debacles in the last three elections there. That they are struggling to make an impact on what was once their fortress is baffling. They are up against an in-form Arvind Kejriwal and BJP, and to make matters worse, their leaders, except for Rahul Gandhi and to some extent Priyanka Gandhi, have failed to counter the opposition there. It is time for Congress to pull up their socks, and make a final push to reclaim their lost kingdom.