Delhi civic polls indicate Congress' rebirth in city

NEW DELHI: After a tremendous comeback victory in four seats in the municipal bypolls, the Congress party was quick to woo back rebel candidate Rajender Singh Tanwar, who won as an independent. The five seats signal a significant achievement, not only because they symbolise the party's rebirth, so to say, in Delhi, but also because Congress had not ever won in these five wards in the two previous polls of 2007 and 2012.
In the run-up to the bypolls, Congress had been contemptuously dismissed as of no significance by both AAP and BJP. After all, the party that had ruled Delhi for 15 years had been rudely shoved off the tally list in the assembly elections of 2015, its vote base having moved bag and baggage, or so it seemed, to Arvind Kejriwal's outfit. Tuesday's results give a new lease of life to the grand old party.
The seats that the Congress won present an interesting political mix. In Quamaruddin Nagar, comprising mostly unauthorised settlements, Ashok Bharadwaj got 15,892 votes, 7,434 more than what BJP got. Significantly, Congress managed to push AAP, the self-proclaimed champion of the poor, to third place. The Congress also won in Jhilmil and Khichripur that come under the purview of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation. Again, in both these areas, it was the BJP that finished in second place, indicating perhaps that voters who had chosen AAP over Congress the last time round have now reverted to the hand symbol.
Khichripur and Jhilmil are both home to a significant low-income population. Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken felt that these seats reflected the changing trend in the mindset of voters. "The voting patterns show that the poor living in slums, resettlement colonies and unauthorised colonies have supported the Congress," pointed out Maken. "This reflects a growing disappointment with AAP."
Maken also cited the result in Munirka, another of Congress' triumphs, where the party won with the support of the urbanised villagers and the government employees. "This shows that AAP's policies for the low-income groups are no longer charming voters. Munirka is where AAP launched its mohalla clinic with much fanfare," said Maken, adding that even in the case of Bhati, where too AAP had opened a mohalla clinic, people had chosen to vote for an independent, Rajender Singh Tanwar, who has since returned to Congress.
The Delhi Congress chief attributed the success to a campaign closely focused on local issues, the highlighting of AAP's failures and promises of good governance if it was voted to power. Maken claimed the engagement of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi with the sanitation workers agitating over delayed disbursal of salaries enhanced the party's image as pro-poor.