The Congress was delivered a final blow by the Delhi voter making it "irrelevant" in the Capital's political landscape. Sixty two out of the 70 Congress candidates had forfeited their security deposit as they could not even get the required 15% votes. That the Congress has lost the plot in Delhi, where it was a formidable force for three terms in government, becomes evident in the results. In December 2013 its vote share was down to around 24% which further dipped in April to 15% in the Lok Sabha elections and now it has touched an all time low of 9.7%. It ended a poor third and even below in its strongholds of slums, unauthorized colonies, minority dominated areas.
Party's poll campaign face and former union minister Ajay Maken, who was brought into the party just before elections to give the Congress a face in Delhi, lost from Sadar Bazar, a seat seen as safe Congress stronghold. He lost by a huge margin of over 51,000. Not only did he end third in a Congress stronghold but also forfeited his security deposit as he could not get even the stipulated 15% of the votes. Most party heavyweights met a similar fate and only in eight seats like Chandni Chowk, Matia Mahal, Mustafabad, Seelampur, Badli, Laxmi Nagar, Jangpura and Gandhi Nagar it could save its security deposit.
As a shocked Congress tried to take stock of its wounds, Ajay Maken tendered his resignation from the post of AICC general secretary to party president Sonia Gandhi. Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Arvinder Singh Lovely followed suit.
Maken said, "The AAP sweep is an affirmative vote for Arvind Kejriwal. The vote clearly shows that people wanted no one else but Kejriwal for five years. Somewhere the people believed that 49 days of AAP was not enough to judge them and hence they wanted to give them the chance to run the city." Maken also admitted that the Congress needs to do introspection as people clearly did not accept the Congress agenda and there was a trust deficit on account of the promises that remained unfulfilled under 15 years of Congress rule. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit had led the government for three terms.
DPCC chief Arvinder Singh admitted that the party's position in the city was very worrying. "The results reflect and AAP wave and we will need to assess the results to see what needs to be done."
Ajay Maken
