New Delhi: The Congress, which controlled the nation’s capital for 15 years till 2013, may not be able to open its account for the third time in a row as votes for Delhi’s 70 assembly constituencies are being counted today.
According to Congress national spokeswoman Shama Mohamed, the party has “at least” grown its “vote share” in an interview with NDTV.
She also criticised Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and her ally, for his “megalomaniac behaviour.”
“The AAP received 1.5% of the vote in the Haryana (assembly) elections. “You are our ally; we are not going into Haryana,” Arvind (Kejriwal) ought to have stated. We want you to battle the BJP and win. What does he do, though? “I’d like to fight.” We’ll fight for every seat as well. He had the option to make a sacrifice, but the Congress party usually makes sacrifices for everyone else,” she remarked.
“We understood his true colours, about his megalomaniac behaviour,” added Ms Mohamed.
According to her, the Congress party has always made room for its partners, including the AAP, the Samajwadi Party, the Shiv Sena (UBT), and the DMK.
Despite running together in Delhi for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and the AAP ran independently in last year’s Haryana Assembly elections.
In at least six of Haryana’s ninety Assembly seats, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party was observed to have spoiled the election for the Congress.
In the end, the Congress only won 37 seats, while the BJP won an unprecedented third straight election.
In the Delhi polls, did the Congress lose again?
The Congress, which led in the early rounds of counting from the Badli seat, is now lagging in every Delhi constituency, based on the patterns that are now available. With top leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra holding numerous poll rallies, the party made a concerted effort to recover its foothold in city politics.
A hat-trick of zeroes for Congress had also been predicted by a number of exit polls.
The party last made inroads in Delhi when it won eight seats in the 2013 assembly elections. The party received 24.55 percent of the vote, compared to 33.07 percent for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 29.49 percent for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
In the 70-member parliament, the BJP, which became the single-largest party in 2013, only managed to secure 31 seats, five seats short of the necessary majority.
After winning 28 seats, the AAP partnered with the Congress to create a government. But their partnership was short-lived—49 days.
The Election Commission website’s most recent counting trends showed that the AAP was ahead in 29 assembly seats while the BJP was leading in 41.
